


do you wanna show me how

by lemonade_juice



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It, Smut, also hannah doesn't die, dani doesn't die in this either, her and owen do get a happy ending!!, i do not own the rights, mentions of peter quint and rebecca jessel, mostly a fic about dani and jamie with little plot, read to find out what happens!!, smut as of chapter 5, this is a canon rewrite so they aren't as heavily mentioned in this as the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:33:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27265786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonade_juice/pseuds/lemonade_juice
Summary: Dani comes to live at Bly Manor where she is hired by Henry Wingrave as an au pair to care for two extraordinary children. Soon things become strange, as she is haunted by her past and the ghosts that reside in the house with her. The children act out of nature and seemingly talk to the walls. However, Jamie is there to comfort Dani through this and soon, the two find themselves falling in love with each other despite the complicated nature of their lives. Hannah and Owen are there to help guide the way but when tragedy strikes one evening, will the strength of all their forces be enough to save them, or will someone perish and join forces with the other side?orAU where none of our beloved characters die (except the ones who are already ghosts)
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 24
Kudos: 101





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> okay y'all i'm a little nervous about this fanfic if i'm being honest. this was a shot in the dark idea that came to me one night and i had to start writing it. this is mostly going to be about dani and jamie, with little added parts from the show for plot because i'm like everyone else. i don't like the way the show ended in regards to dani so! here's a little fix-it fic for the team!

A certain ease of mind was settled over Bly, the morning Dani Clayton arrived at the manor. Outside, it was sunny and bright. The children who she was hired to care for were running down the lane chasing each other. Miles, the oldest, and Flora, the youngest. It put a smile on Hannah Grose’s face, who watched from the front door of the manor as Owen drove up.  
It was as if somehow Mrs. Grose knew that Dani Clayton was destined to save these kids. Save Bly. She felt it deep in her bones, that day. When the car came to a halt, she watched as Owen opened the car door for the au pair, then went around to the hatch to pull out her bags. Hannah made note that she packed lightly.  
Owen smiled as he approached Hannah at the door, while Mrs. Clayton went to greet the kids for the first time. “She’ll be great,” he said as he passed by her inside.  
Now, she heard Flora talking about all the places outside of the manor, saying they were all perfectly splendid. It made Hannah chuckle audibly, as it was the child’s favorite term to use to describe everything. However, she did get tired of hearing it all the time.  
“And here is Mrs. Grose!” Miles says to Mrs. Clayton as they finally make their way to the manor, “She’s our housekeeper.”  
Dani makes a face as if to say she’s shocked by the way the children talk about their caregivers but says nothing. “I’m Dani,” she says to Hannah and holds out a hand to shake.  
Hannah takes it. The au pair’s hand is warm to touch, “Hannah Grose, but please call me Hannah.”  
“Hannah it is then,” Dani smiles brightly.  
“Welcome to Bly Manor,” Hannah gestures with her hand to show off the mansion, “Once you’re here, you never leave.” 

Once Dani settled in for the day, unpacking her small bags and putting them away, she went downstairs to join everyone for dinner. Owen make chicken parmesan, with his own special twist of eggplant and squash. Hannah explained to her that he had a way of making the vegetables taste so good that the kids couldn’t resist them. And she was right. They were perfectly salted and peppered and with marinara sauce atop, she hardly tasted the bitterness underneath.  
“I’m so happy to be here,” Dani announces, “With you guys. It’s a beautiful place.”  
“We’re very happy to have you Mrs. Clayton,” Owen holds a glass of wine in the air to a cheers. “You are going to make a great deal of difference around here.”  
The statement makes Dani blush brightly, “I can only hope that one like me can do that.”  
“I have faith in you darling,” Hannah places her hand on Dani’s shoulder softly.  
Right then, another woman, one closer in age to herself, enters through the back kitchen door. She’s dressed in a dirty plaid shirt and worn overalls. Her hair is dark and curly, cropped right above the shoulders. Dani finds herself staring at this woman til she turns around and quickly has to look away to avoid eye contact.  
“Owen, what deliciousness have you conjured up today?” the woman’s accent is quite the catch too, if it wasn’t only for her looks.  
“Class favorite,” Owen throws over his shoulder as he takes his own bite from his plate, “I thought I would make it for Mrs. Clayton’s first day in Bly.”  
“God, I’ve been begging ya to make this since February,” the woman sloppily makes her own plate and joins the rest of them at the table, “How come the new girl gets the honor?”  
“Because Mrs. Clayton is special!” Flora states to this woman, who all but eats her dinner with her hands.  
“Oh yeah,” she raises an eyebrow to Flora, and then glances at Dani. She searches her up and down as if she’s impressed with what she sees, “What makes her so special?”  
“Must you always doubt everyone, Jamie?” Hannah slides in with her own comment.  
“Hey,” Jamie throws her hands innocently in the air, “I’ve seen a few things once or twice in my life. I can’t help it.”  
“Well Jamie,” Dani butts in to the conversation as well, “I hope that you can see what the kids do.”  
Dani doesn’t know why she said that. In fact, she’s annoyed that it even came out of her mouth. The woman, whose name she now knows is Jamie, is taken aback a bit by the comment. However, she just gives the au pair an all knowing smirk which makes Dani blush slightly.  
“Alright,” Jamie pushes herself away from the table, “I’m gonna go finish this out in the greenhouse. You know where to find me if ya need me!”  
With that, the gardener was gone and Dani didn’t see her for the rest of the night. She in turn got the kids ready for bed. Once they were freshly bathed, teeth brushed, and pajama’s on, she tucked each one in. Miles was first, as Flora asked to have a couple more minutes to play with her dolls. Dani didn’t mention this to anyone at dinner, or after, about the fact that she caught Miles playing peeping tom on her shortly after she’d arrived.  
It felt silly to bring it up to Hannah or Owen, but it was something she wanted to address to Miles directly as she didn’t want this to become a regular thing. Bad habits were bad enough, but spying on women while they were changing is another.  
“Miles,” she folds her leg over another and crosses her arms across her chest, “I think you and I need to have a discussion about earlier.”  
“I’m really very sorry Mrs. Clayton,” Miles gives her the puppy dog eyes, as if to say ‘I’m innocent, please don’t hurt me’. They worked, too, as much as Dani hated to admit it. “I didn’t know that, that bothered you.”  
She took in a breath, “Well, anytime anyone spies on somebody like that, it should bother them. You see, there’s this word privacy, which means that the person wants to be alone or not disturbed. That was a moment of privacy.”  
“Spying on you?” Miles propped himself up on his elbows, arching an eyebrow, “Why on earth would I do that Mrs. Clayton? I thought you were angry about me not eating all my vegetables at dinner.”  
Now, Dani was confused. Did he not remember what happened earlier or was he just trying to play silly to keep from getting yelled at? She had so many thoughts, but kept them to herself, deciding just to let it go for the night. “You know, you’re right. It is silly.” Miles relaxed back in bed and Dani tucked the blankets back around him again. “Go to sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.”  
With that she removed herself from Miles room to traverse to Flora’s. But something caught her eye briefly, a dark, black shadow with bright yellow eyes in the mirror of the siblings’ shared bathroom. It horrified Dani, so much that she audibly gasped. Quickly, she blinked and the figure was gone so she hurried over to Flora, pretending that nothing was wrong.  
“Are you alright Mrs. Clayton?” Flora asks with her sweet, innocent voice, “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”  
The comment makes Dani want to laugh out loud, literally. However, the memory of what just happened couldn’t escape her mind. She saw the figure everywhere, in everything she did. It haunts her, endlessly. She feels uneasy and like she may have a panic attack, however Flora keeps her mind distracted from anything like that right now.  
“What dolls do you have here?” Dani picks up one, that is dressed in a pink dress with dark hair. The doll has no face and it looks handmade by Flora herself. Frankly, she thinks the dolls are hideous, but she would never tell the little girl this, not wanting to hurt her feelings.  
“Be very careful with them,” Flora says in a low voice, nearly whispering. “They do not like strangers.”  
Weird, but okay, Dani thinks to herself. “Do they have names?”  
“Some of them do. Most of them don’t have faces, so I can’t give them names.”  
What a strange, little child. Dani was still unsettled by the ghost haunting her, she didn’t need children adding to that. “Say, why don’t we get on in bed?”  
“Aw,” Flora pouts, “Do I have to?”  
“Yes. Uncle Henry will be very unhappy if he finds out I let you stay up past your bedtime.”  
“Uncle Henry is so unhappy about everything,” Flora comments as she climbs into bed and under the covers, “He never comes to visit us when he asks. I don’t think he loves us anymore.”  
This shatters Dani’s heart, “Hey, that’s not true. Not true at all. Your Uncle Henry loves you very much.”  
“How do you know that?”  
“Because, he didn’t think that I was good enough to take care of you two at first,” this was true, as Dani recalls their meeting in his office yesterday. The meeting that later led to their second conversation in the bar where she got the job. “He wants only the best for you two, so I had to prove that I was worth it.”  
“You’re very kind Mrs. Clayton,” Flora says solemnly, “But that is simply not true.”  
The child turns on her side, away from Dani. She has so much more to say to her but decides to let Flora feel her feelings. Plus, she was extremely tired herself and wanted nothing more than to just curl up in her new bed in this giant manor. Turning, on her way out the door, another stray doll of Flora’s caught her eye. It was much like the one with the pink dress on, except this one was dressed in grey and the hair was unkempt.  
“Hey, I think you lost of one your dol-,” Dani turns and is stopped instantly.  
Flora is sitting straight up in bed with almost an evil, daunting look in her eyes. “Put her back where you found her.” Dani does as she’s told, “She is to stay under the dresser at all times.”  
“Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I won’t do it again.”  
“Promise me you’ll stay in your room tonight Mrs. Clayton,” Flora says in almost a demanding tone, “Do not leave for any reason.”  
“I promise,” Dani says, holding up three fingers for the scouts honor.  
She stayed to watch Flora lay back down to sleep before turning the lights in her room off and returning to hers. Dani had no idea what she’d gotten herself into but she was positive about one thing; she was sure to find out. 

The next morning, Dani made sure the she awoke early enough to be the first one in the kitchen. Owen wasn’t set to arrive till eight and the kids didn’t rise till nine. It was a little after seven now when she looked at the clock on the wall, ticking away little by little. She swore if she stared at it long enough, that time almost seemed to stop for a split moment before resuming.  
Dani shook that thought away as the kettle started to whistle, letting her know that her tea was done. Unaware that British people did not put milk into their tea, she did just that. As that was the way she has always drank her tea, with a little sugar added as well. To her, it tasted perfectly splendid.  
Jamie came in through the side door of the kitchen just then, apparently just arriving for her day. She nodded to Dani, “You an early riser, Poppins?”  
Dani knew she would be lying to herself if she said she didn’t find that accent charming. How she managed to keep her blush hidden, she didn’t know. Actually she did know, yet she didn’t want to admit it to herself. It was the fact that nobody knew she preferred girls. A secret she hid from herself for many years until it eventually caught up with her.  
While, she did get a little bit of a vibe from Jamie, she could not act on it until she knew. Maybe she would drop little hints from time to time, seeing if she picked up on them. If she did, perhaps she’d invite her in for more but till then she would keep her feelings under wrap.  
“I wanted to make breakfast tea for everyone,” Dani proudly explains as she pours Jamie her own cup.  
However, the face that the other woman made was not in that of pleasure. She quickly sloshed her backwashed tea back into the cup and set it down, going over to the sink to run a glass of water to wash the taste away. Dani didn’t know what to say. Honestly, she was embarrassed but Jamie seemed to want to reassure her, “Look, I’ll be honest with ya, ain’t nobody gonna drink that. Nobody around here wants milk in their tea, they like it plain or with just a little bit of sugar.”  
Jamie winks at her and that definitely earns a blush from Dani, who stutters when she says, “I-I’m still learning. I’m used to it just being me to care for.”  
“You’ll get the hang of it. Those kids are little gremlins, but they’re understanding. They’ve been through a lot you know, yet they are still so trusting of strangers.”  
“How did they die?” Dani asks, remembering the part where Henry told her during her interview that their parents died in an accident. He seemed to have left the details out, perhaps on purpose. “Their parents, I mean.”  
“We don’t know,” Jamie sips from her water, “Henry was very vague with it on the phone with Hannah. She loves those kids something fierce. Let’s ‘em get away with damn near everything.”  
“I can tell. She’s a very sweet woman,” Dani smiles at the thought.  
“That she is,” Jamie stands from the table, “Don’t ever cross her though. She gets ugly when you do and you don’t want to see Hannah get ugly.”  
“I’ll keep that in mind.”  
“Good. Well, I am off to tend to my garden, talk later Poppins!” 

Hannah didn’t come to dinner that night, Owen saying something about how she wasn’t feeling well enough to face everyone. Jamie was there, though. She looked the same as this morning, in her beat up band t-shirt and worn overalls that were now soiled with, well, soil. Her hands were stained but yet still appeared soft and beautiful.  
Dani tried to avoid any direct eye contact with Jamie as much as possible, because each time she seemed to look her way, she’d find the other woman already staring. It made her feel so small in a way, to have someone looking at her that way, yet she couldn’t help but feel joy in that small feat. Since she’d known she only liked women, she found herself wanting every woman she found beautiful to look at her like that, yet that never happened. Now it is, and she’s just not quite sure how to react to that.  
Deciding to leave it be for the night, as she didn’t want to start something, she took a plate of dinner up to Hannah’s room. The woman was splayed across the bed with a rag over her head. Dani gave a light knock on the wall to let her know she was there. Hannah jerked from the surprise since she wasn’t expecting any guests before sitting to an upright position.  
“Migraines,” Hannah explained, setting the cool rag to the side table, “They’re killer, aren’t they?”  
“That they are,” Dani gives her an understanding nod.  
“Haven’t had one in forever. This one’s blinding almost,” Hannah sighs, “What do you bring?”  
“Dinner,” Dani travels across the room and sets the plate at her small desk, “Owen and I were worried about you but he had to get back to his mom.”  
“He’s such a lovely man,” Hannah stands and crosses her arms, “I really worry about him here lately with his mum. She’s been like this for years, you know. Just kind of lost in the details, she’s there but not completely. But these last few months, the dementia has done a real number on her.”  
“That’s terrible to hear. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like to go through that.”  
“Hopefully, you never have to,” Hannah says point blankly, “You should go on and get the kids ready for bed. If they stay up any later than nine, they’ll be impossible to get to go to sleep.”  
“I was thinking since it was the weekend, I’d let them stay up till ten. You know, just for a night,” Dani purposes this idea to Hannah but she knew instantly the woman wasn’t having it.  
“Absolutely not,” she wasn’t rude or strict with her tone, but rather frightened by the thought of the kids staying up till that time. The only explanation that she offered was, “Bly is not forgiving.”  
Dani took that as her cue to leave before she started asking more questions she didn’t care to have the answer for. She left Hannah to eat alone and went to find the kids in their rooms. Miles wasn’t in his but when she crossed through the joint bathroom, she found both kids sitting in Flora’s bed together reading a bedtime story to each other. It warmed her heart, so she stood there for a moment just watching them.  
Checking her watch, she saw there was only a few moments till nine, so she made her presence aware, “Come on you rascals, time for bed.”  
“But we haven’t finished our story!” Miles cries out.  
“Yeah! We need to know what happens to Mr. Rabbit!” Flora pouts in return.  
“We can finish the book tomorrow night, I promise,” Dani takes the book and sets it to the side as the children loudly groan. “Miles, let’s get you tucked in first.”  
“I don’t want to go to sleep yet.”  
“We are not doing this mister, you know your bedtime is at nine and it’s five till.”  
“Fine, but you will know that I am not happy about this,” Miles throws over his shoulder as they walk back to his room. He climbs in his bed and pulls the covers over himself, “I can tuck my own self in.”  
Dani raises an eyebrow in disbelief. His tone would certainly be addressed in the morning. She turns his light off and makes way back to Flora, who has also tucked her own self in. Dani smiles at her small figure and leans over her bed to press a small kiss to her forehead, “Good night Miss Flora.”  
“Good night, Mrs Clayton.”  
On her way out of Flora’s room, she struck something with her foot. It was the grey doll that was under her dresser, “Oh, I think your doll got moved accidentally.”  
When she turned back around, Flora was sitting straight up in bed like she’d just seen a ghost, “I almost forgot. I can’t sleep without my heating fan. It gets terribly cold here some nights.”  
Miles comes in seconds later as if on cue, “Yes, she must have her fan!”  
“Oh,” Dani is very confused by this, “Well, where is it?”  
“It’s in my closet,” Flora points to the door on her wall, “Look there and you will find it.”  
Dani thinks it’s innocent enough and walks into her closet to find it, “Where is it?”  
“It’s there,” the children say in unison before the door slams shut.  
Dread runs through her veins as she runs to the door, “Open this door right this instant you two.”  
“We can’t Mrs. Clayton, please understand.”  
By now, panic and fear is settling over Dani. She hates being enclosed in small spaces. It makes her feel like the entire world is getting ready to crush her. She can’t bear it as her breathing becomes labored and heavy, tears streaking down her face as she screams for the children to open the door. They claim that the door is stuck and they need to find the key.  
Dani turns to see if she can find it in the closet when she sees him. He’s in the tiny sliver of the mirror that’s stored inside Flora’s closet. It’s enough for her to completely lose it. Memories of him fading in and out. It’s a terrible, haunting feeling. Yet, it’s all her fault. She is terrified in this closet, air becoming more and more scarce as she falls into the fetal position in the corner of the closet.  
She rocks back and forth to try and calm herself but every time she closes her eyes she sees it and it’s there when she opens them. The horror surrounds her. It’s consuming her. But somewhere in between, she must’ve blacked out as this sometimes happens after a particularly bad episode, because next thing she sees is the kids after they open the door.  
Anger doesn’t even begin to cover her emotions at the moment. “Bed. Right now. We will talk about this in the morning.”  
She leaves them but something else catches her attention in the hall. Wet, muddy footprints. Fuck it, she’ll deal with it tomorrow. Right now she needs peace and quiet, which she finds in the solace of her own bed. Soon, she drifts to sleep and dreams of better days.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani makes the children clean up after their mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys!! back with another chapter of this fic i've been working on. i hope you guys enjoy it, please leave feedback if you do!! :)

The toll of the grandfather clock awakens her. Despite feeling refreshed, Dani didn’t sleep well at all in the night. Too worried about the children, still uneased by being locked in the closet. It was suffice to say that this was not what she signed up for when she took on this job.   
Quickly changing from her bed clothes, she put on a freshly pressed pastel pink blouse and her favorite pair of jeans accompanied by her jean jacket. It was a gift from her mother when she’d gone off to college and she’d treasured it ever since. The kids weren’t set to wake up for another hour so she made her way to the kitchen where she found Owen already prepping breakfast.   
“Dani!” he greets her chirpedly, “How was your night?”   
A nightmare, she thinks to herself. “It was fine, how’s your mom?”   
“Ah, the same really. I’d like to tell you that she’s improving but in fact it’s the opposite. Last night wasn’t terrible but we spent half of it bickering about if my name was George or not before I got too tired to continue.”   
“I’m sorry,” Dani pondered on her next works, but in truth she really didn’t know what to say, “I’m sorry you have to go through this.”   
“It’s life. Life’s just all about the next hurdle it throws at you. It’s how you handle it all.”   
“How are you handling it?” Dani truly wants to know, as maybe Owen can give her some advice on how to handle her own demons.   
“Really fucking bad,” Owen says bluntly. For a moment she thinks he may start to cry but he somehow manages to keep himself under.   
“There you two are,” Hannah greets the au pair and the cook as she enters the kitchen. She’s putting on a pair of earrings but she looks as beautiful as she always does, dressed in a orange turtle neck and matching plaid shirt. “Something smells delicious, as usual Owen.”   
“Thank you, m’lady,” Owen shoots a big toothy grin over to her.   
Dani suddenly gets the feeling that there is something definitely going on between these two and that she may be interrupting something. By lucky chance, Jamie comes in and takes over. “Did you see that it frosted last night?”  
“I haven’t gotten to chance to wonder out that far yet,” Hannah states as she sips on coffee.   
“Well it did! In the middle of July!” Jamie seems highly upset about this. “My carrots and beets are ruined! If it ain’t the animals nibblin’ on them, it’s the frost in July!”   
“Well, maybe they aren’t all ruined Jamie,” Hannah offers a bit of hope. “Hopefully their hardy enough to make it through.”   
“Nope, I already checked ‘em. They’re done for.”   
“There’s always next year,” Owen offers up.   
Dani didn’t understand a bit of what was going on but she decided to join in, “Can you still replant them?”   
“I mean you could,” Jamie slumps down in a chair, “But then you’d be taking the chance of the autumn frost killin’ em then.”   
She gets an idea then. A good one at that. Above her though, there’s rustling and laughter which means the kids are probably awake. She motions her exit to run upstairs and check on them, noticing the mud is still caked to the stairs. Once Dani makes it to the kids room, she sees them already dressed for the day, standing and talking in Flora’s room.   
“Good morning, Mrs. Clayton,” they say brightly in unison.   
“I think you already know what I’m going to say to you two,” Dani feels that anger bubbling back up again but she pushes it down because she does not want to yell at them, “So, I’m going to give you a chance to explain what happened last night.”   
Flora looked at Miles, Miles at Flora. He was the first one to speak, “There was a breeze, it blew the door shut and we kept trying to open it but it wouldn’t. We had to find the key for it.”   
Dani looks at Flora, “Is this what happened?”  
The little girl gasps, “Of course it is Mrs. Clayton. Why would we lie about that? We know that it upset you.”   
There was definitely something these kids were hiding from her but she didn’t have the energy to force it out of them. She would find out in her own due time, she was sure of it.   
“Here’s the thing, I forgive you,” Dani sighs, “But I’m afraid I don’t believe you.”   
There was silence over the room, as Flora’s eyes darted to the doll under the dresser. The little girl acted like she was going to pick it up, however, Miles stopped her.   
“Mrs. Clayton, we are quite hungry this morning,” Miles holds his stomach, “May we go eat breakfast now?”   
“Yes. You may,” she watches as the children quickly make their way from the room, “Walk don’t run!” 

Once breakfast was over, the kids went running up the stairs where Hannah was mopping up the muddy footprints. Dani stopped the kids in their step and took the mop from Hannah, handing it to Miles.   
“If you two are going to sneak outside at night and drag in mud, you are going to clean it up,” Dani says unflinching.   
This surprises the kids, but Hannah too, “Mrs. Clayton, it’s quite alright. They do this all the time.”   
“Well, it’s time they learned to clean their own messes up. As long as that’s alright with you, Mrs. Grose?”   
“Fine by me,” Hannah chuckles. “It’ll be good for them to learn to do some chores.”   
Dani stayed with the children till they’d finished mopping, then let them play on their own for an hour. The hour went by quickly and then it was time for lunch. Miles didn’t want to eat and stated he wanted to have a nap. Dani allowed this, as long as he promised to eat his dinner that night.   
She was the last one to finish eating, picking at her sandwich Owen made, her mind elsewhere. She’d promised to clean up the kitchen herself, which she did and on her way back up to her room, Miles stopped her in the hall.   
“Mrs. Clayton,” he says in a very gentleman-like manner, “I have a present for you.”   
He reveals a bouquet of white and red roses from behind his back, “Oh, Miles these are just beautiful.”   
“As an apology for last night,” he explains. Dani crouches down so she’s at eye level with him, “I did not mean to be cross with you.”   
“It’s all forgiven now, Miles.”   
The boy leans in and presses a soft kiss to her cheek, “You look very beautiful today.”  
The comment makes Dani jolt back and stand upright again. It took her very off guard and frankly, it creeped her out. She remembers Henry saying something about Miles getting in trouble when he was at boarding school that led to him being expelled. Now, she found herself wondering what exactly that was.   
Shaking it off, she sent Miles on his way and went back up to her room to put the flowers in a vase where she found Flora knelt down on the floor inside her suitcase. Dani set the flowers on the edge of the bed, asking, “Look at you, spic and span!”   
“I found these,” she produces a pair of broken glasses, “They were like this when I found them and I thought you’d want them back.”   
“Where did you get these?” they were his glasses. That same feeling from last night and many nights before, ran through her again.   
“In here,” Flora explains innocently. “I hope you are not cross with me.”   
“Will you excuse me a minute?” Dani says calmly and quickly rushes out of the house and into the drive.   
She hides behind a bush and begins to cry deeply. Dani doesn’t hold back anything, letting herself feel that pain she’s held deep inside till it came to resurface time and time again. She blames herself for it honestly and how could she not when it haunts her even in her dreams. It’s tiresome and every time she thinks she might have finally gotten it all out, something else comes along to remind her that in fact, she hasn’t.   
This time, she’s crying so hard she doesn’t hear the gardener approach until she’s speaking to her, “You alright over there?” A brief pause, “Kids. They run ya ragged don’t they? People in general, actually.” Dani didn’t say anything as she tried to cease her tears, “That’s why I prefer plants. Easier to get along with and I find if I don’t like one or one looks at me funny I can just,” a noise that sounded like someone’s throat being cut came next.  
Dani genuinely laughs at this, as Jamie continues, “Right, the kids. Look, I cry all the time. Three, four times a day. Five if I’m really being honest with myself. How else do you think I keep all these plants watered by myself? With my endless well of inconsolable tears.” Dani chuckles again, “Look, you’re doing great. You’re doing great.”   
“Thank you,” Dani says sheepishly.   
“Back to it then,” Jamie picks up her tin buckets and starts to head back in, “Chin up, Poppins.”   
Those words truly make her smile as she watches the gardener disappear into the house. She’s quite a riveting woman, almost impossible to ignore. Dani can tell by the way she carries herself that Jamie doesn’t like to get close to people but for some reason, she has decided to let Dani into her world, just a sliver. Maybe she was just trying to cheer her up or maybe it was something else. Who really knows. 

Later in the afternoon, she goes to find Jamie once she’s calmed down. She wants to thank her for earlier and maybe even talk to her a little more. That idea is quickly thrown away when she finds Jamie squatting near a pile of ravaged roses. Dani doesn’t know much about plants, nothing in fact, but she can tell that the bushes were destroyed.   
“Jamie,” Dani says announcing herself.   
“Little fucking shit,” Jamie says through gritted teeth.  
“Hey,” Dani doesn’t want to go there.   
“Little fuckin’ shit. I’m gonna kill him,” Jamie turns and tries to storm inside but Dani stops her short.   
“Hey, it’s just some flowers, they’ll grow back,” Dani tries to comfort her.  
“They weren’t ready to be cut! I don’t know about you Poppins, but I do things a certain way and I don’t like people comin’ in and undoin’ them.”   
Dani stands there for a moment, “Look, you’re right. You’re right. I’ll talk to him about this.”   
Jamie chuckles, shaking it off “Can we go back to the part where you were actin’ mental earlier and I had to talk ya down?” 

Next thing any of them knew, Dani had both the kids in the garden replanting the crops that were ruined in the unexpected frost. Jamie and Hannah sat at the table next to the greenhouse while Owen brought them pastries. Dani was on her knees with the children helping them dig the holes so they could put their seeds down.   
Jamie had to admit it to herself, she liked this new au pair. She had the balls to make the children clean up and do the dirty work that nobody before had done. The last one spent not even a day with them before she left and never came back. What the cause of that truly was, she’ll never know but this one seems alright.   
It doesn’t hurt that she’s mighty beautiful, too. Jamie sees pretty women leaving the bar every night with too rough looking men as she’s turning in but this one. There’s something special about her. She can’t quite explain it but she’s very drawn to her in the way that she feels like she’s known this woman all her life and she didn’t even know it.   
“How are they doing?” Dani shouts from across the garden.  
Jamie holds up an okay symbol with her hand, “Doin’ just fine,” she takes a moment to just stare at the au pair, before adding, “Maybe you should make them do this more often.”   
Yeah, she could get used to this. 

Once everyone else had head in for the evening, Dani was the only one left behind. Jamie was in her greenhouse, Hannah and Owen preparing dinner while the kids had a few hours of playtime. As she was walking back up the lane, she spotted a man standing on the parapet of the old wing. He was young, tall, handsome and had a wicked smile on him. Dressed in a blue turtleneck and a brown coat, he just stood there. Staring.   
A rush of cold air ran down Dani’s next which diverted her eyes for a moment. But when she looked back, the man had disappeared. She panicked, quickly rushing inside to see if anyone else had seen him. Dani found Hannah and Owen around the stove in the kitchen, “Did you guys see a man? On the parapet?”   
“No,” Hannah cocks her head, “I didn’t, dear. Why did you?”   
“Yes, I saw a young man on the parapet just standing there and the next thing I knew, he was gone.”   
“Hm. Odd, better go up and see if anyone has gotten in.”   
Dani found it very particular that nobody else was as concerned about this mystery man as she was. She did take it upon herself to go up to the old wing and check it out for herself. As she wandered through the hall, she found it eerie and that she wanted to get out of there as soon as she could. She made way into the main bedroom, which was also the Wingrave’s room they once shared.  
Everything was covered with furniture covers now, of course but Dani could imagine how it looked in all of it’s glory. She opened the glass door, to find nobody standing out on the parapet. She did find something though, one of Flora’s dolls on the edge of the thing. Dani tucked it in her pocket and made her way back to the kitchen.   
“Find anything?” Hannah asks almost immediately.   
“Nope, nobody was there,” Dani answers, pulling the doll from her pocket, “I did find this though.”   
“Ah, Flora,” Hannah smiles brightly. “It’s one of her dolls. She calls them talismans. They’re to protect us.”   
“Protect us from what?”   
“Owen! Something smells perfectly delicious!” Flora exclaims as her and Miles come running into the kitchen.   
If Hannah was going to say anything, the moment was lost now. Dani tucks the talisman back into her pocket to return it to it’s spot later. Now, they all eat dinner together going back and forth about different types of teas and which one tastes best. Dani is obviously not a part of this conversation, as she failed to make it right the first time.   
It’s lovely for them all to be together like this, however. Dani didn’t have much of a family back in America that she could really count on. It was just her mother and half the time she wasn’t even her mother. She had to fend for herself most of the time. Being together with everyone, right now, she felt that she had found her family. 

That night, Dani went to get the kids ready for bed, when she saw the man again. He was standing on the foyer, hands in his pockets, with that wicked smile again. She audibly gasped which caught Hannah’s attention but by the time she ran over, the man was gone again.   
“It was him! I saw him!” Dani sputters out.   
“Peter Quint,” Hannah says blankly. “It has to be him. He’s come back.”   
“What to rob us some more?” Owen adds.   
“I’m calling the police,” Dani says and she does just that.   
However, the police did not seem too concerned with their issue. The man stated that he made rounds, around the property twice and didn’t see anything. Dani begged him to check just once more but he was disinterested in staying any long. Absolutely useless.   
“Well, if you won’t go check, I’ll just do it myself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> find me over @ kissvillanelle on tumblr :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani learns more about Peter Quint while her and Jamie get to know each other better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi lovelies!!!!! if you're reading this, thank you for sticking around :) i'm still working on my writing everyday and i sometimes struggle with it, especially when it's a show that already has characters that everybody loves. i want to do them justice while also sticking close to the the story. anyhow, i hope that you guys all enjoy this chapter, please leave feedback if so :)

So, she did. Dani grabbed a fire poker from the stand by the door and a flashlight and head out onto the grounds at night to search for Peter Quint. In the time the police took to search, Hannah briefly filled her in on him. Apparently, he was a friend of Henry’s. He worked with him at the office as his assistant, making rounds back and forth to Bly for him. That is until Rebecca Jessel came into the picture.   
Hannah explains that the two of them were instantly drawn into each other, beginning a relationship. She said it was innocent at first, like any other two people in love but Peter took a sharp turn fast. Soon, jewelry started going missing, he was persuading Rebecca to do things she normally wouldn’t, using Henry’s name to get away with things. Hannah was the only one who saw him for what he truly was but Rebecca wouldn’t listen. She was too in love with him.   
One night, the two were meant to leave town for America and a bunch of Charlotte Wingrave’s jewelry went missing. A hundred and twenty grand worth of it. Rebecca had no idea of this, until later, Hannah said. But Peter Quint skipped town without her, leaving her at Bly, heartbroken. Owen went on to add that in the days leading up to her death, she was never quite the same. She mopped about the house and neglected her duties to the children.   
Flora was the one who found Mrs. Jessel’s body, Hannah told Dani. She said Flora was five at the time and the look on that little girl’s face broke her heart. Said she found her just staring into the lake, unknown of how long she’d been there. It honestly made Dani tear up a little. These poor kids, no wonder why they were always acting up. With the life they’ve experienced, she would too.   
Now, as she traversed through the woods behind the lake, flashlight in the left, poker in the right, she searched for this infamous Peter Quint. So far her search has came up sour but she’d continue doing this until she was satisfied he’d been scared off and the kids would be safe. As she rounded the corner, a figure came out in the distance so she quickly threw her flashlight onto it.  
Just Jamie, who also has a massive hunting rifle locked and loaded in her hands. “Geez, Poppins, giving me a fright.”   
“I thought you were him,” Dani lets out a sigh of relief.   
“No sign of him yet. Shot plenty of rats with it. I sure won’t mind adding Peter fuckin’ Quint to the tally,” Jamie shrugs and holds the gun back up. “Look at you, fighting off monsters and you don’t even know the half of it.”   
“I’m staring to learn.”   
Their search comes up dry and they decide to make their way back in for the night. The darkness was starting to consume the grounds, but they stopped by the chapel first. Jamie’d noticed there were candles lit and wanted to make sure that Peter wasn’t there. He wasn’t, as Hannah lit the candles and forgot the blow them out, “Hannah’s always lighten’ ‘em and forgotten’ em. Tell her all the time she’s bound to burn this place to the ground one of these days,” Jamie leans in to blow the candles out, “Come on, let’s get you inside.”   
They make it back to the house and into the kitchen, “No sign of parapet Pete.”   
“Maybe we’ve scared him off,” Owen states as he places a mug of hot chocolate in front of Hannah and Flora.   
“We couldn’t get so lucky,” Hannah adds with a scoff. “Men like him are always lingering in the shadows.”   
“I think I’ll stay here for the night,” Owen says as he sits down next to Flora. “Just to make sure he doesn’t come back.”   
“What about your mum?” Flora asks.   
“She’ll be okay for just one night. ‘Sides, she’s fast asleep by now. I’ll just ask the neighbor to keep an eye out.”  
“Hannah, can I have your hot chocolate?” Flora asks, trying to slide the cup over her way.   
Hannah’s eyes widen, “No, you may not. You’ll be up all night.”   
This really gets the children riled up, “We’re gonna have a sleepover! We are gonna stay up all night and it’s going to be perfectly-“ 

Within the matter of an hour, both kids are sound asleep on the floor of the family room. There’s a fire burning as Owen makes his rounds with a bottle of whiskey. Hannah declines, stating that someone needs to be sober enough to fight Peter Quint off. Jamie crosses the room and sits next to Owen, as he begins to tell more stories about how awful this Quint guy is.   
Apparently, one night after Rebecca Jessel had only been at Bly for a few weeks, they’d all been in the kitchen making a cake. They had a friendly bickering about whether it needed more strawberries or lemons, so everyone took turns tasting the batter. It was a very innocent thing, but Peter Quint did not think so when it came to Rebecca. Owen said he overheard the two arguing that same night about the way Rebecca tasted the batter. He turned something innocent into something else entirely, which led to a huge fight. Peter didn’t return for a week after that.   
Hannah goes on to add her own story about the time she caught the two in the old wing of the house. Rebecca was wearing one of Charlotte’s old fur coats, almost completely nude. Peter tried to justify it stating that Henry said she could have those things because Charlotte never wore them. Hannah knew better than to believe that so she immediately banished the two from the room so she could clean up.   
The stories went on for a while but eventually, the fire went out and Hannah fell asleep on Owen’s arm, leaving just Dani and Jamie.   
“You know every woman in the village is just mad for him and he doesn’t even know it, which makes it even worse.” Jamie says, taking a sip from her spiked hot chocolate.   
“They look like Bonnie and Clyde,” Dani states as she holds a photo of Rebecca and Peter.   
“Yeah, if Clyde fucked Bonnie over.” Jamie looks solemnly at the photo, “He got away. She paid the price.”   
“So what? He’s stalking a dead woman and risking prison for someone he didn’t even bother to bring along? That doesn’t make sense.”   
Jamie looks at Dani, “The wrong kind of love can fuck you up. Follow ya, make you do some really stupid shit.” Dani gets the feeling that Jamie may be talking about her own experience, but she doesn’t press on it. “Believe me, those two were the wrong kind of love.”   
“We’ve all been in the wrong kind of love-,”   
“Yeah, but I saw how he twisted himself in her. Burrowed in deep. I don’t know how people mix up love and possession, but guess what? He didn’t just trap her, he trapped himself and I hope she haunts that fucker forever.”   
“People do don’t they,” a pause, “Mix up love and possession?”  
There’s a brief glimmer of tears in Jamie’s eyes, “Yeah they do.”   
“I don’t think that should be possible. I mean they’re opposites really. Love and ownership.”   
“Yeah,” Jamie adds softly.   
They stare at each other for a moment and they swear that they can feel each other’s hearts beating in time. Like this moment in time, has been made for the two of them to just share this moment. No matter how brief it is. It’s meant for just them to share their truths with one another.   
Hannah cuts their thoughts away when she says, “They really ought to be in bed.”   
Dani jumps, “Yeah. Yeah, they should.”  
“I’ve got it,” Jamie says and picks Flora up like a baby off the floor, blanket and all.   
“You’re the coolest,” Flora says in a very sleepy voice.  
Miles says something about having a bad dream in the background that made him very sad. But soon everyone has gone on to bed including Dani. When she wakes in the morning, she makes a quick cup of tea before heading into the family room where she finds Jamie asleep on the couch.  
She had no idea that the woman stayed overnight and the fact of the matter made her feel safe. Like a guardian angel watching over her and the kids. Dani smiles at this and heads back to her room to dress. Once fully outfitted, she notices something on the grounds. A figure in pink.   
Oh God, it’s Flora. The little girl was out standing by the lake, just staring down inside it. Dani rushes outside as quickly as she possibly can, not caring about the noise she was making along the way. She slams the front door of the house open and runs to find Flora.  
Hoping and praying that somehow she hadn’t wondered into the water. And by God’s grace, she hadn’t. When Dani got to her, she was still just standing there, holding one of her dolls.   
“Flora,” Dani shakes the girl to face her, “Flora, what on earth are you doing out here?”   
Flora gasps, “What am I doing out here?”   
By this time Jamie and Hannah had also come running behind Dani. Jamie asks, “Is she alright?”   
“Yeah she’s fine,” Dani looks at the little girl’s tiny body up and down to make sure there were no cuts or bruises. Nothing appeared amiss. She says to Flora, “Why don’t we get you back inside.”   
“I don’t feel very well,” Flora says sheepishly, rubbing her eyes, “Do you mind if I stay in bed today?”   
Dani looks behind her at Hannah and Jamie, who both nod solemnly. It seems like the best thing to do. “That’s just fine with me. Come on now.” She takes Flora by the hand but the little girl pulls away and goes to Jamie who picks her up and carries her the rest of the way.   
It makes Dani’s heart flutter immensely, seeing how well Jamie does with Flora. With Miles, it was quite the opposite but they could work on that. Hannah hangs back with Dani and says, “You know, I thought she’d gotten past doing that.”   
“Doing what?” Dani glances at Hannah, needing her to finish her story. She never did, but this time it was important she does.   
“Sneaking out in the early morning like that. Going to sit at the lake, staring at basically nothing. Almost as if her eyes could see something ours can’t,” Hannah lets out a sigh, “She did it quite often after Rebecca died. Usually Owen or Jamie would be the one to find her as they drove in for the morning, but then she got out of it. No memory of ever doing it, just simply ceasing to do it.”   
“How long has it been since she did this last?”   
“Oh, I don’t know, three, four months possibly,” Hannah rubs the back of her head, “I can’t say I blame her though. She took it quite hard when Rebecca died and since she was the one who found her, I’d imagine that was her way of dealing with it. Never failed to give us a fright though.”   
Now she was curious about Miles, “Does Miles ever do anything like that?”   
“Miles? No. Usually he’s the one making the trouble,” Hannah chuckles, “Didn’t Henry tell you why he was expelled from boarding school?”   
“He left those details out,” Dani comments on.   
Now, they were back inside the house. Jamie had gone up to put Flora down for bed as Hannah turned away, “I better go see what Owen’s up to.”   
Wait, is what Dani wanted to say to Hannah. Tell me about Miles. What got him into so much trouble at boarding school that he was expelled. Why did nobody around here ever finish what they were talking about? It was starting to get on her nerves slightly. These children were her responsibility and she needs to know everything to make sure they are well cared for.   
Sighing herself, she lets it go for now and travels up the stares to find Jamie standing at the foot of the bed, “She’s out like a light.”   
“Hannah told me she used to do this a lot before,” Dani brings this fact up to Jamie.   
“Yeah, I used to find her wanderin’ around all kinds of places but then she just stopped doin’ it. She’s a strange child, but I find that I look after her like she’s my own. Never wanted children myself so I guess they make up for that.”   
Dani smiles, “You’re really great with her, you know that right?”   
“Eh, they’re alright.”  
Goodness, she really likes this woman. Like as in she could push her up against this wall and make-out with her until the sun went down. She feels that Jamie feels the same way, too. Which makes it better and harder at the same time. One day at a time, she reminds herself.   
“Well,” Jamie breaks Dani from her thoughts, “Better get back to the garden. All those plants aren’t gonna get watered without my tears there to save them.”   
Dani chuckles and watches as she leaves, waving goodbye. She stays a moment over to watch over Flora. The little girl seems at peace, sound asleep. These kids are going to put her to an early grave. 

Later that afternoon, Jamie was repairing a few shingles that’d broken loose on the roof of the chapel. Hannah came to find her saying that it’d been leaking all morning and asked her to fix it. She was happy to oblige, of course. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for Hannah.   
As she was atop the latter, Miles had wandered his way out onto the grounds and while Hannah wasn’t looking, he began to shake the latter out from under her. Luckily, she was able to stabilize herself on the edge of the roof.   
“Cut that shit out,” Jamie shouted down at him. He stopped and she quickly made herself back to down level where Hannah now was at alert. “Do that again and I will fuckin’ bury you.”   
“Jamie, please,” Hannah comes over and puts a hand on her shoulder, “He’s just a child.”   
“I don’t care,” Jamie seethed, “He’s never too young enough to learn not to try and kill people.”   
Miles said nothing but smiled wickedly. A smile she saw too often plastered across the face of the one and only Peter Quint. Probably where he learned his little tricks and antics from, too. Curse that arsehole, wherever he was.

At dinner, Dani and Jamie sat at the table while Hannah and Owen prepared dinner. Flora was still asleep and Miles was hopefully somewhere not getting into trouble. Jamie told Dani what happened earlier and despite her pleads to let her talk to him, Jamie insisted that she already took care of it. What that meant, she probably didn’t want to now.  
Now, Dani stares at the polaroid of Rebecca and Peter. They were a very attractive couple, it was impossible to deny. It reminded her of him, when they were together. She wishes he didn’t haunt her but those wishes were far and few denied.   
The phone rings now, breaking her away from her thoughts. It often did that these days, ringing around dinner time but nobody answered. Dani was the one to answer it today. “Hello,” she says. No reply. A brief pause. “Peter?”  
The line goes dead and she returns the phone to the receiver. “He might not know she’s dead,” Hannah says, drying her hands with a dishcloth. “He’s probably calling waiting for her to answer.”   
“Sick bastard ain’t he,” Jamie scoffs.   
At that moment, Flora and Miles enter into the kitchen dressed in costumes and face paint. Flora as a cat and Miles as a puppet, “It’s story time!” Flora graciously announces.   
“Oh no, story time,” Jamie groans.   
“Oh good, story time,” Owen cheers.   
“Come on then!” Flora says as she runs off to the other room.   
“Like it never even happened,” Dani throws her hands up.   
“They do this quite often. It’s their way of processing what they’ve been dealing with,” Hannah explains, “Come on now, they’re waiting.”   
Story time consists of Miles telling the story of a puppet maker who made all kinds of beautiful puppets. But then these puppets began to mock their maker, forgetting that he was the one who made them. They were weak, but he was strong because he made them that way. But the puppets saw through who the puppet maker really was, an evil wretched man. They wanted to stop him but all was too late.   
Their story is interrupted by the phone ringing. Jamie curses and picks it up, thinking it’s Peter again, “Look dude, she’s dead. Rebecca Jessel is dead.” A beat goes by and nothing. “Christ, yeah. I’ll get him,” Jamie puts the phone on her shoulder, “Owen, it’s for you. It’s your mum.”   
Owen’s mother passed away in her sleep overnight. The caretaker said she wasn’t in any pain but he left immediately after. Dani took the children upstairs and met the rest of them outside. Hannah was hugging Owen tightly and whispered something in his ear that was intelligible. He got in his car and drove away, to which Hannah went to light a candle at the chapel.   
“Right,” Jamie says breaking the silence that hung in the air.   
She began to walk back to her own truck so Dani followed. Neither of them said a word to each other but nothing needed to be said. Their company was enough of a statement as any words could ever be.   
“I-I’m glad you stayed,” Dani says to Jamie before the woman leaves for the night.   
“I am, too,” Jamie gives her a sullen smile.   
There’s more that both of them want to say, but it’s just not the right time. Not after everything that just happened. Dani instead reaches out to grab Jamie’s hand, hoping that that’s enough for now. The touch of Jamie’s rough, but still soft is like a shot of electricity through her veins. Something that she’s not used to experiencing.   
They stand there for a moment, just reveling in the moment before the sounds of the night cause them to break apart. Jamie nods, and opens her door before turning back, “Who the hell knew?”   
Dani watches as Jamie drives off, until she can no longer see her. As she turns back to the house, she sees him. She sees Edmund. She sees him standing right in front of her and screams for him to let go of her. To finally give her up and let her be free.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani finally faces her demons as everyone is there for Owen in the aftermath of his mother's passing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!!!!!!!!!! one more chapter for this story!! only 3 left to go after this!! this one is a long one with most of Dani's backstory in it!! i wanted to expand on it a lot more than what was in the show. i know what it's like to feel like you can't come out because of the risk of disappointing everyone around you, so i really wanted to bring that side out with her along with how she discovered herself. i hope i did it justice. 
> 
> thank you for everyone who has been reading, and if you're just reading this for the first time i hope you stick around for more. please leave feedback if you enjoy!! :)

Edmund was her childhood best friend. They’d met when they were in first grade after he’d moved to her town. They hit it off almost straight away. Dani didn’t have any friends and neither did he, almost a perfect match. Most days, she would spend at his house because her mother was often too busy not being a mother that she didn’t want to go home.  
Dani would stay for dinner, despite her protests that she should go home and eat, knowing that there wasn’t going to be any food on the table when she got there. Sometimes, she thinks Edmund knew this and it was his way of protecting her from going hungry until the next day at school. They did this for years, until it eventually led to sleepovers as they got older. By that time, her mother had straightened herself up a little by then and tried to care for Dani as much as she knew how.   
However, she stayed with Edmund most of the time regardless. He’d become her new family. So, it was almost natural that the two of them fell in love with each other when they turned thirteen. He kissed her and she kissed back, so it bloomed from there. They were prom queen and king when they were sixteen. Even went to the same college so they didn’t have to be apart.   
That’s when things became confusing for Dani. She’d always felt something was different about herself as a teenager. Though she never quite put her tongue on it until she was in college. There, she found herself looking at women the way that men would. Watching their movements, the way they walked and spoke. She noticed the softness of their hands and lips, the curves of their waists. Everything about them was beautiful.   
Then, she thought, she might like to know what the taste of the lips feels like. How it would feel to cup the breasts of a fellow woman, to share their bodies the way a man and woman do. Those thoughts felt right to her. At first, she didn’t know what to label it but the gay rights movement was a huge thing on their campus. Soon, she discovered the word, lesbian, and thought that was fitting for her but she didn't admit it aloud.  
However, there was still the concern of Edmund at hand. Despite the way she felt about women she loved Edmund. Perhaps not in the way she should’ve but she hoped that it was enough to change her mind. Make her feel the way she was supposed to about him. She fought with those thoughts and feelings for years. Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more lying to him, he got down on one knee and asked the biggest question you could ever ask a woman.   
It broke her heart to say yes. Because she knew that once Edmund had discovered the truth it would break his. Was she selfish to say yes? Perhaps she was, but it was all she could do to keep herself from crying to sleep at night, praying that she’d wake up and be normal. This never happened and the cycle went on.   
His mother, who she often saw as her own, went up to her during their engagement party and gave her, her wedding dress. She wanted Dani to wear it on their wedding day. It crushed her because this woman who loved her like her own daughter, would hate her once she knew the truth about her. But to make everyone around her happy, she agreed to wear it.   
They went to fittings, her mom and Edmund’s mom. The seamstress they’d hired seemed to feel the same way about women that Dani did, complimenting her shoulders and putting a hand to the small of her back. It was the first time she’d ever had any kind of interaction with a woman in that way since she’d known. It was small, but it finally gave her the courage to tell Edmund the truth.   
Dani and him went to dinner that night. They’d earlier agreed that they wouldn’t talk about the wedding because Edmund thought she was too stressed out so it was to be just about the two of them. And it was. But not in the way he expected. Dani told him she didn’t want to get married and he revolted from the restaurant.   
She followed him of course, where they sat in his car and she told him the truth. The truth about how she can’t be with him because he’s not a woman. It shattered his heart, like she predicted.   
“How could you do this?” he cried, in anger. “How could you do this to me?”   
“Because I loved you! And I thought that maybe I would eventually start to feel the way I was supposed to but-“   
He cuts her off, “Fuck you, Danielle.”   
“I still love you, Edmund,” Dani pleads with him to hear her out.   
“You don’t know what that is,” he says angrily as he exits the car.   
That next couple of seconds will forever be ingrained int Dani’s mind. The lights of the semi-truck flashing on his glasses, the darkness of his figure as he was hit head on. The sight of his body bleeding out in the middle of the street. It wasn’t a haunting, it was a curse, to have that memory.   
A curse that has followed her everywhere since. She first saw him at the funeral. His reflection in the mirror across from her. His hand was on her shoulder, something he often did as an innocent gesture now terrified her. It followed her all the way home, to the point where she had to cover all the mirrors in her home.   
But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it was all the people calling and coming to visit to give their condolences, unknowing that she was the reason that he stepped in front of that semi-truck that day. If she hadn’t told him the truth about her, he would still be alive. It was too much for her, so she decided that she would come to London.   
Once in London, she struggled back and forth for a while in a small, rickety flat, but now she was here at Bly Manor. With a beautiful gardener who was just her type and just so happened to have feelings for her in the same way she always dreamt about. Except, he was still here. Watching her, haunting her. 

“You decent?” Jamie’s voice comes from the other side of the door as she knocks.   
Dani is standing in the middle of her room, looking down at the black dress she was wearing at Edmund’s funeral. It’s ugly, if she’s being quite honest with herself. Jamie seems to think so, too. On the contrary, Jamie looks exquisite. She’s wearing a slim back dress with a denim jacket as a topper. Even put make-up too.   
“You’d cause quite a stir in the village wearing that around,” she comments, sitting down on the edge of her bed, bringing her focus back to her dress.   
“Yeah, it’s the only thing I have in black.”   
“You know, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Jamie can feel the anxiety Dani is feeling. “I don’t need ya to be my date to Owen’s mum’s funeral.  
“Really?” Dani’s eyes widen.   
“Yep, Owen said as much.”   
“Oh good,” Dani sighs, “Can you help me take this off?”   
“Blimey.”   
“No, seriously,” Dani points to her back, “The zipper.”   
“Right.” Jamie pulls the zipper down and before things go any further, she says, “Look. Take the day and relax. It’s your day off, Poppins. And if I find you ain’t been relaxing when I get back, there will be serious consequences.”   
Jamie exits the room shortly after and Dani let’s herself begin to cry. She cries for the person she once was. Cries for the person she wants to be. Where she can feel and live her truth without being haunted by her past. 

Some time passed and soon her, Hannah and the kids were in the kitchen preparing dinner for Owen. They were making shepherd’s pie. It was all Hannah’s idea, as it was Owen’s favorite meal. Hannah helped the kids chop up the vegetables while Dani peeled the potatoes.   
Jamie entered through the back door of the kitchen not soon after, sitting down at the table, “Any chance for a brew?”   
“I’ll make tea,” Dani happily suggests.   
“No!” Hannah and Jamie exclaim at the same moment.   
“How did it go?” Hannah asks genuinely, “Did Owen do well?”   
“Not at all,” Jamie crosses her legs and begins to remove her shoes, “It must be a relief.”   
Hannah grimaces, “Did he seem relieved?”   
“He didn’t seem much of anything, shellshocked,” Jamie moves her hands up to take her earrings off. “I’d be relieved though. Slowly losing myself like that. Christ, just shoot me.”   
Dani didn’t realize it till Jamie noticed but she’d been staring at the gardener in fascination that one could feel such morbidity about themselves. Sure, she can see where one would feel relieved after a situation like that but she could put herself into the feet of those who were experiencing it. It must be hell, knowing you have lost all sense of yourself, barely knowing where you are when you wake up, if you even do remember or wake up. The burden knowing faces but not names, or names and not faces. Putting your family through that when they only want to help you. It’s heart-breaking, to know that someday all those wonderful memories you once shared will become emptiness. She hopes that Jamie never experiences that, or anyone in Bly for that matter.   
She finishes peeling the potatoes and takes them over to the sink to wash the dirt from the garden off. When the water starts running, she feels hands on her waist. But they are not those that she recognizes. Till she sees his reflection in the metal of the strainer. It causes her to audibly jump back.   
“Poppins, you alright?” Jamie’s voice asks with concern from behind her.   
Dani does her best to keep her emotions under control, but she feels her throat closing and her breathing restricting. Tears swell up in her eyes. “I need a minute,” Dani manages to get out before running off into the hallway. She grasps onto the dresser, something solid to keep her grounded. Dani puts all her focus onto that to keep her from going over.   
It works, until she sees a figure outside the window of the house. Peter Quint. Dani switches to fight mode almost instantly. She rushes to the front door, following his movements as he makes his way there. She pulls a fire poker from the stand as she opens the door, pointing it straight at Owen.  
“What?” Dani shakes her head. She could’ve sworn it was Peter.   
“Everything alright?” Jamie comes running behind her, “Stand down, Poppins. Bound to take someones eye out with that thing.”   
“I thought he was P-P-Peter,” she stutters.   
“Well, that’s not right because I’m much better looking,” Owen jokes to lighten the mood after Dani did just try to stab him with a poker.   
“I think I’m going to go lie down for a bit,” Dani feels as if she’s losing her mind. Perhaps a nap would do her some good. 

Turns out, it doesn’t do any good. She feels just as exhausted as she did before the nap as she does now. It is the children’s bedtime however, so she puts them down for the night without issue. Though, now she is wide awake with seemingly nothing to do to keep her mind occupied elsewhere. That is until she makes her way downstairs to make a quick brew to hopefully ease her down.   
Jamie is standing in the foyer with her big jacket on and one for Dani as well. “We’re all outside and you’re joining us.”   
Moments later, she’s wrapped tightly in blankets with a full bottle of wine in her hands as they chat among the fire. Hannah and Owen are cuddled together, which is a very sweet sight to see. They’re truly perfect for each other and-  
“I say we start tonight by throwing old bones to the fire,” Jamie says abruptly which distracts her way from Hannah and Owen. “Tonight’s the perfect night for it, so I’ll go first. Lord and Lady Wingrave. They were good people. Old fashioned, kind people. Their kids really miss ‘em. But here’s Dani Clayton! She’s a bit of a weirdo but she’s a lot stronger than she thinks and if anyone can bring the kids back to themselves, it’s her. I’m glad she’s here,” a beat, they all take a drink from their wine bottle, “What about you Poppins?”   
“Um,” Dani has plenty that she could say. Enough to go around the table, actually but she doesn’t want to talk about it. Not yet. Mainly in front of Hannah and Owen. She thinks that Jamie would understand but the other two might find it strange and make fun of her. “No, thank you.”   
“That’s alright,” Jamie nods, “Hannah, got anything to say?”   
“Rebecca,” another pause, “Rebecca Jessel. My God, it’s been almost a year. A year focused on the wrong wrong. Wherever she is, she’s ten of that man. I won’t say his name. She was brilliant. She was beautiful and she was punished for it. I don’t know why brilliant young women are always punished. Rebecca.”   
They all take a drink. Owen takes his glasses off and closes his eyes. Hannah reaches out for him, “No. You don’t have to.”   
“So, my mom,” Owen starts anyways. “Margeret Sharma. She as sixty-seven except sometimes by the end she forgot that. Called me by my dad’s or brother’s name and I sometimes pretended that I didn’t know who I was supposed to be. They didn’t say any of that at the funeral. They just smoothed it over. Made it nice. So, they left out all the bad stuff, and the good stuff. They didn’t didn’t say any of the good stuff. Like how she would wink at you from across the breakfast table. She had a sweet tooth and a dirty laugh. She loved me so hard it hurt. Sometimes. No matter what I did. She was gone long before she died. I miss her. She was my anchor and I supposed that she was my burden. Christ,” he takes a minute, “She seemed to small at the end but still so heavy. All I could do was let her hang onto me until it was time to let go. Soon I’ll let her go, too.”   
They all take another drink. The atmosphere is heavy around them again as Dani remembers those moments in the hospital after Edmund. It was a dreadful place, one that nobody ever thinks of until they’re there. Despite the sterile appearance, it’s filthy to the brim with death and disease.   
This instance is no difference. She’s sat with Edmund’s mother in the waiting room for the doctor to come out and talk to them. Dani is riddled with fear, guilt, and unbelievable sadness. Edmund’s mother is completely unaware that she is the reason her son is even in this situation to begin with. That moments before he stepped out of the car and was hit by the semi, she told him that she was a lesbian and didn’t want to marry him.   
As if the night couldn’t get worse at all, it somehow did when the doctor came out and told them the inevitable. Edmund had succumbed to his injuries from the semi. His mother broke down into tears that never seemed to stop, not even at the funeral. Dani cried, boy did she cry. Yet, her eyes told a different story.  
A story of a woman who kept herself up at night holding her pillow, wishing it was her. Even though she never shared mutual feelings with him, he was her best friend. He was the one who got her through everything. He comforted her during all the fights with her mother. He was a good person. Edmund did not deserve what he got. 

Dani thinks of this now as her and Jamie head towards the greenhouse. Hannah asked Jamie if they could give her and Owen some alone time, as she wanted to have a moment of peace after the speech about his mother. The two agreed happily. Dani had been wanting some alone time with Jamie since the other night. Everybody had been so busy trying to help and take care of Owen, the two barely had time to say more than a simple hello.  
She yearned for more. Yearned for what she wanted. She was tired, tired of keeping this all in. The bonfire did seem to help and she felt that she could be tired around Jamie. Tell her the truth, let her in and understand this guilt she’s carried around.   
“I’m not gonna ask ya if you’re alright, because I don’t like being lied to.” Jamie hands her the wine bottle, “So, what’s wrong with ya?”   
“Thought I saw Peter Quint.”  
“But you didn’t,” Jamie says softly.   
“No, I didn’t,” she takes in a breath and doesn’t meet Jamie’s eyes. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen things that aren’t there.”   
“So what else?”   
“Well,” there’s a pause and she turns to Jamie, setting the wine bottle down, “I guess I told you about my fiancé, earlier tonight.”  
“Yeah,” Jamie’s eyes widen and she shifts, “I was hoping we’d get around to that one.”   
“Yeah, me too. We were engaged and he died. He died and I, uh, and sometimes it’s like I see him. I’ve never told anybody that.”   
“I’m so, so sorry.”   
“We were about to break up. We had broken up, yeah, right before. I mean right before.”   
“Jesus, Dani the same day?” Jamie looks around, with her own thoughts going on inside her mind, “Is he here now?”  
Dani looks around, “No.”   
“Good,” a pause, “Cause I’ll sort him out if I have to. Oi, dead boyfriend! Give it up, mate! It’s over!” Jamie is in awe of Dani, “How are you still standin’?”   
“Do you think I’m crazy?”  
“I think you’re surprisingly sane, considering. I know what it’s like when-“   
Dani takes a leap of faith, doing something she thought she never would’ve done otherwise. She leans forward and crashes her lips into Jamie’s, grabbing and holding her face to bring her closer. Why should they wait any longer for this? Why should she keep denying herself of what she wants.   
This is what she wants. To kiss Jamie and to be with Jamie in the way she’s always dreamed of. It felt so right with her. Like they had always known each other so it felt so natural. Jamie’s lips were soft and tasted slightly of cigarettes. Something she would find disgusting, if it wasn’t her. With Jamie, everything was perfect and she just couldn’t get enough.   
Jamie breaks away briefly, “You sure?”   
“Yes,” Dani looks around and nods her head.  
“Thank fuck,” Jamie whispers and their lips are met again with a certain ferocity and hunger.   
Dani’s never wanted to kiss anybody in such a needful way before. She was running out of air quickly, but the way Jamie’s hand tangled in her hair, she didn’t want to stop. So, she grasped her closer, wrapping her arms completely around her. Dani let out a gasp, to which Jamie slid her tongue against hers. They met in surprise, which made Dani’s body go weak on her but Jamie was there and held her tight.   
Almost nothing could ruin this moment, but almost nothing is still something. And that something was Edmund’s ghost sitting right behind Jamie. Dani saw him through the crack of her eye and it frightened her, causing her to jump back.   
“Right, okay,” Jamie pulled back and shifted on the couch. Clearly needing to take a cold shower.   
“I don’t know what to say,” Dani stammers out.   
“Just forget about it, it’s my fault I’m sorry.”  
“Jamie.”   
“You were just telling me, literally just telling me you weren’t up for this,” Jamie stands up, despite Dani’s protests to talk to her about what just happened, “Let’s just get back. Another night maybe? Another time maybe?”   
Jamie takes off into the night and Dani quickly follows after. She hates herself in this moment. Hates herself for disappointing and upsetting this woman she is so clearly taken by. She knows that Jamie is upset but there is nothing Dani can do to fix it in this moment. The only thing she can do is just stand and watch as Jamie leaves for the night.   
“I’m turning into a pumpkin,” she can hear the coldness in Jamie’s voice, “Come on, Owen. It’s time to head home.”   
“It is that time isn’t it?” he stands, “Alcohol you later.”  
Hannah rolls her eyes at his cheesy joke, “That’s low, even for you. Be safe.”   
“I know the road, we’ll be fine.” Jamie says to reassure Hannah, but she looks back at Dani with a soft smile, “It’s all good.” 

Dani can’t sleep that night, riddled with more and more guilt every second by the fact of knowing about Jamie’s disappointment. She made tea, hoping that it would lull her to sleep but with the amount of sugar she put in it, it would seem it only keeps her up. She shifts in her bed and sees Edmund’s broken glasses sitting on her nightstand. Suddenly, the ghost of Jamie’s voice comes back to her, “Throw old bones into the fire.”   
She does just this. Wrapping herself around with a blanket and heading outside to the still burning fire. Dani thought that Hannah put it out before she went in, but apparently she didn’t. It was low enough now that it would safely go out without a problem. But still low enough to burn the remains of her past. Dani tosses Edmund’s glasses into the fire, staring at them, watching the fire melt the glass.  
She sees his ghost in front of her in the fire, the light reflecting off his eyes. Dani says nothing. Feels nothing. Soon, his reflection disappears into the darkness. Never to be seen again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani and Jamie finally reconcile. Jamie's past finally comes to light as she let's Dani in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all i'm gonna say about this chapter is smut definitely insues!! it's also definitely not the best but i hope that y'all enjoy regardless!! leave feedback if you enjoy as usual :) thanks for reading!!

A week goes by and she doesn’t speak to Jamie. Nor, does she see Edmund. Part of Dani wishes that the event of last week at the bonfire never happened, but she is also glad that it happened now because it’s given them both time to think and reflect. It gave her time, to take in the fact that Edmund’s ghost is truly gone for good.   
Now, she approaches Jamie’s greenhouse with two cups of freshly brewed coffee. She uses her foot to tap the glass of the door, which gets Jamie’s attention as she’s watering plants.   
“Don’t usually see you this side of the AM,” Jamie sounds frustrated in her voice.   
Dani remains hopeful however, “Uh, yeah well I-I knew, I know you start early on Thursday’s so I thought I would bring you some coffee.”   
“You yanks and your coffee,” Jamie let’s out a soft chuckle.   
“You might like it,” Dani smiles brightly as Jamie turns and she hands her a cup.   
“Cheers,” they say in unison.   
They both take a sip, however Jamie immediately spits it back out. Oh dear. “I’m not the best at coffee either,” Dani says, feeling a bit frustrated.   
“How’s your week been?” Jamie asks as she walks back over to her table.   
“It’s been okay. Yeah, um,” Dani pauses, a bit dumbfounded at what to say. She wasn’t expecting the morning to go like this, truthfully but she persists, “The kids have been acting a little strange lately. Actually, everything’s been a little strange. And no Owen. No you. I see less and less of Hannah. She just goes out, I guess. By herself! Sometimes I just turn around and she’s gone.”  
“Sometimes people just need to be alone,” another lackluster response from Jamie. Dani sighs to herself, feeling a bit silly thinking that this could’ve possibly worked. Jamie seems to take a notice by her almost defeat and asks, “Did you wake up just for this?”   
“No!”  
“You just waited for me to come back?”   
“I knew you were coming back today, but no, no particular reason,” it was a terrible, terrible lie.   
“Are the kids awake?” Jamie knows she’s up to something now.   
“Um, no. No, they’re asleep.”   
“So, you just got up with the sun and tiptoeing ‘round the kitchen making awful coffee by yourself just to come say hi at six in the morning for no particular reason?” Jamie raises an eyebrow, “Poppins, you flirt.”   
Jamie turns and walks to another section of plants that still need to be watered. Dani follows closely behind, “Fine. I-I, I don’t like the way that we left it.”   
“And how did we leave it?” Jamie challenges.  
“Wrong,” Dani takes in a breath, “And, I wanted to start doing something right. So, I thought I’d start with coffee.”   
Jamie purses her lips and nods, “You sure about that? Because every time I think you’re sure, you have this irritating habit of jumping back like you’ve just seen a scary bug. Maybe that’s best really. I like ya, but I also like my life the way it is. Nice and boring.”   
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to disrupt that,” Dani is feeling a bit annoyed but still slightly hopeful, so she mocks Jamie’s accent, “Gotta keep things proper borin’, haven’t we?”   
Unbeknownst to Dani, this earns a genuine smile from Jamie. Dani turns and says to her, “Look, there’s this pub in Bly, right?”  
“There is.”   
“Would you want to get a drink with me? Get away from this, the house. That could be kind of boring right?”   
“Could be dreadfully boring.”  
“Okay, so I could ask Hannah to watch the kids for a night and you and me could get a boring old drink in a boring, old pub and see where that takes us.”   
“You know I live above that pub right? But I told you that already didn’t I?” Jamie knows exactly what Dani is doing and truthfully, it’s too sappy not to take her up on her offer, “Got a little flat, right above the boring, little pub.”   
Dani smiles like a great big idiot who’s just made one of the most romantic gestures in her life. That is until she sees Flora wandering around the back of the greenhouse.   
“Flora?”  
Dani and Jamie go running out to see about the little girl. She stops and just stares into the woods, what she sees, Dani can’t see it. “Flora,” Dani says to her.   
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Clayton,” Flora says and turns around to her, “I’m not feeling very well again. What am I doing out here?”   
“I could ask you the same thing,” Dani says to her. “It’s freezing out here,” she turns to Jamie, “Help me get her back inside.”   
Jamie does just that, lifting the little girl up and carrying her like a baby back to the house. They put Flora back to bed and Dani checks on Miles, who’s still in his bed asleep. She gets the thermometer from the bathroom and brings it back to take Flora’s temperature. It’s normal, only 98.4.   
“I don’t want to get tucked away again,” Flora says aloud, which confuses Dani. The little girl looks off somewhere in the room but neither her nor Jamie see’s anything.   
They shrug it off for the time being, but Dani spends the day checking on Flora regardless. She rises to eat and play with her dolls but soon after goes right back to bed. Miles is with Dani most of the day, who sits in the kitchen with Owen and Hannah.   
She doesn’t see Jamie for the remainder of the day and though their conversation this morning was awkward, she thought Jamie would take her up on her date plans. But she didn’t, because she heard Jamie’s truck leaving as she was preparing Miles for bed. Maybe, tonight just wasn’t a good night for her to get a drink with Jamie. That’s how she would explain it later.   
Dani makes her way back downstairs to the kitchen where Hannah and Owen are sitting at the table with tea. She walks over to make herself a cup as well, wanting to sleep through the night tonight when Jamie comes back in through the door, “Don’t touch that. You’ll just desecrate it.”   
“I thought you’d already left.”   
“Made it about halfway home, then I thought, rough day. Perhaps Poppins might fancy a little boredom, what do you say?” Jamie rotates a flashlight in her hands.   
“The kids-“  
“Already taken care of,” Jamie says bluntly.   
Hannah joins in, “We’ll keep things taken care of. You two just go and enjoy yourselves.”   
“Yeah, we got things taken care of here,” Owen says in agreement.   
“Come on then,” Jamie takes Dani by the hand and gently leads her out of the house. 

The two begin walking until they come to a section of the woods behind the greenhouse.   
“Are you taking me out here to kill me?”   
“Keep talkin’ and I just might,” Jamie comes to a stop just then and points to a vine of bright white flowers, “There’s not many secret places on grounds this big, but this one is special.”   
“Wow that’s beautiful,” Dani says in awe, “You planted that?”   
“Yeah. It’s a moonflower. Bloody hard to grow in England.”   
“Yeah, but worth it.”   
“Is it?”   
“Isn’t it.”   
“They only bloom two months a year and only at night. In the morning these blooms will be dead and tomorrow night, new buds will form and takes it’s place. In about a month, these flowers will die and I’ll have to plant a new moonflower next year.”   
“That’s a lot of work for a flower that only blooms once.”   
“That’s what people feel like to me. Exhaustive effort, with very little to show for it.”   
“All of them?” Dani asks.   
“All of them. Even you. Even me. Especially me, so I figured I’d save you some effort,” Dani takes this as her cue to sit down on the wooden block next to Jamie. “Skip to the end, take a shot, so here it goes.”   
Jamie goes into a monologue about her family life. Her mother’s name was Louise, her dad’s was Dennis. Her mother was only eighteen when she met her father Dennis, who was twenty-four. They got married and had her brother Denny a year later and her, who was less of a surprise. She goes on to say that her father started to work in a coal mine because it was more money.   
Her mother was left at home with two kids to raise because her father was barely home anymore. But with her mom being just a kid herself and with a husband 600 meters down, she starts to do what kids do. Play. Her dad’s underground and her mom is under some bloke. But she stops, and starts to say something else about the coal mine. She says that she thinks about this more now that she’s older. There’s no plants down there. This seems to really bother her, as she talks about men being underground digging up dead things that were so old and lifeless they would burn until they were nothing.   
Dani can tell Jamie is trying to hold back tears, but she continues on talking about her mother and how she does anything she can to feel alive. She goes on about when her father comes up, the black, powdery death is all over his face, his hands, his lungs when he comes home. That everyone in town laughs at him because they know the new baby, her little brother Mikey isn’t his. Call him a cuckold.   
Her mother was called a whore. Even called Jamie one too, bullying her at school. She says that the cruel words even made it’s way home and her brother Denny piled on, blaming all the women in the family. Her mother left in ‘67, she says. That day when Jamie came home from school, she talks about finding her little brother Mikey home, screaming his little head off, not knowing what he's done wrong. She says that she tried to take care of him but she's just a kid herself and her father doesn't know anything about raising a baby. So, he buries himself in the soot and didn't come back up.   
Jamie and her siblings were involved in an accident, which then got social services involved, so they went into foster care where they were split up. She says all foster care was, was stale perverted men with scornful wives who wanted to make extra money by taking care of the local trash. Then, she explains how she left for London a few years after that where she got into some trouble and wound up serving a few years in jail. That’s where she got her love for plants.   
Plants, to her are so much more worth the effort than people. She goes on talking about how she can pour her love and nourishment into plants and see where it goes. See the way that they grow and thrive. She reiterates again, how exhaustive people are, even the best ones, but once in a blue moon, someone is worth the effort.   
She turns to Dani then and says, “Look, I know you’re struggling. I can see it. I see this guilt you’re carrying around. But I also know that you don’t decide who lives and who doesn’t. I’m sorry, Dani, but you don’t. Humans are organic. We live, we die, it’s natural. It’s beautiful. We die and we’re born again, leaving more life behind us to take our place. That life refreshes and recycles. And on and on it goes. It’s so much better than being buried in the dirt, becoming so lifeless that it will burn if it’s old enough. So much better to see the leafing and the flower, like this moonflower. It’s where it’s beauty lies, in the mortality of the thing.”   
Dani is for certain that if she hasn’t been falling in love with Jamie this entire time, she certainly is now. Dried tears streak down her face as she takes Jamie by the hands, looking directly into her eyes. It’s dark outside, but she can still see the way they sparkle. This beautiful woman in front of her is all she thinks about anymore. How, she has been her saving grace since she’s arrived at Bly. The reason she left America and came to London in the first place. She didn’t know that then, but she does now.   
She moves her hands up to cusp Jamie’s face in her hands and pulls her into a deep kiss. It’s so much better this time, knowing that the ghosts of her past won’t be here to haunt her. She can be who she really is with Jamie. The other woman pulls back briefly, but she can see in Dani’s eyes, that this is right for both of them this time.   
They both make their way back towards the house, hand in hand, barely able to take their eyes each other. Truthfully, to anyone else they’d look like a couple kids coming home to an empty house on prom night but to them, this was a new beginning for the both of them. A beautiful beginning.   
Their lips didn’t meet again till they were enclosed in the privacy of Dani’s bedroom. Jamie kept her back to the door, whilst Dani stood in front of her, just staring at her. They both shed their coats and that’s when Dani raised her hand, to brush Jamie’s hair back. She kissed her with a certain kind of hunger that she’d never experienced before. It overwhelmed her.   
She slid an arm around Jamie, and snaked it up her back to grasp her hair, pulling her closer. Dani never wanted to let go of her. Or for Jamie to let go of her. She wanted to mould them into one.   
Jamie seemed to understand something Dani didn’t in that moment, and put her hands on Dani’s hips. She pushed her away gently, to stare in her eyes, “Are you sure?”   
Dani nods. She knows what she wants but she doesn’t have the words to say them. She wants Jamie in the way Edmund had always wanted her. He used to pursue it, until Dani told him to wait till marriage, which was enough to keep him at bay. But in all honesty, she never wanted to wait. She just wanted it to be with the right one and Jamie is it.   
The other woman moves them to the bed where their lips meet again as Jamie hovers above Dani. Now, there was nothing left to do or say besides letting their bodies guide them. Jamie’s mouth is warm against Dani’s, as she lets a hand trail up her back. She lets it slide up about half-way before grasping a handful of the cotton and pulling it up.   
Jamie’s skin is just as warm as her lips, soft and smooth. The other woman sighs at the touch of Dani and moves her mouth downwards where she allows herself to suckle on the sensitive skin in the crook of her neck. It tickles a bit, Dani thinks but the sensation it leaves behind afterwards is oh so wonderful.   
She feels a certain pressure building up inside her as Jamie continues to lower herself. Even sliding her own hand up and under Dani’s sweater to cusp her breasts. This comes at no surprise to her, as this is what she wants, but she can’t help but feel out of breath by it all.   
Soon, their shirts and bras have equally been removed and their bare skin is finally together. Dani is overcome with so much emotion, and love. Feeling her lover’s skin against hers is something she’s always wanted to have and with Jamie here now, it’s all she ever wants.   
“You sure about this?” Jamie asks as she lifts her head up from her belly, where she was just peppering kisses moments ago.   
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so sure about anything,” Dani manages to say in one breath.   
Jamie just smirks at this and places her lips back on her. She trails her tongue along the outskirts of her bellybutton and lets her lips slide back up till her mouth envelopes her breast. Dani gasps, in a beautiful way and arches her back slightly. Jamie slides her hands under her and holds her close as she pays attention to the way her lover reacts to the caresses of her lips.   
It’s all Dani can do to sit still while Jamie touches her with the pressure building up and up. She bucks her hips into Jamie’s leg, which definitely catches her attention. Jamie brings her lips to Dani’s again, their kiss melting them into each other before breaking apart again. Then, she feels a hand between her legs, gliding up her thigh and around to her waistband.   
Their eyes meet just for a moment, one last time, for reassurance. Dani nods and Jamie unbuttons her pants, gently sliding them down until they’re completely off. She tosses them somewhere into the room that doesn’t matter.   
Jamie lowers herself onto Dani then, bringing her mouth to where she needs her lover the most. Her tongue works softly and slowly at first, so not to overwhelm her. But the moans that escape Dani’s mouth and the way she tugs at her hair, tells her that she wants more. So she works a little quicker, sucking the spot that brings her to the edge and throws her over.   
Everything happens so fast, it’s Jamie, it’s Dani, it’s them. Blood rushes through her veins as she let’s out a low moan, her body spasming in the best way possible. The warmth, the sensation afterwards. It’s all so beautiful.   
Jamie shifts back up and lays next to Dani, wrapping an arm around her. She pulls her close and wraps a sheet around her because she’s shivering.   
“I’m not cold,” Dani mumbles, sated for now.   
“Was it okay? I didn’t want to do to much, you know,” Jamie wants reassurance. It’s been a while since she had been with a woman, but she knew this was Dani’s first time. She didn’t say that it was, but she knew by the way her body reacted that it was. “I just wanted you to feel good, is all.”   
“Jamie,” Dani says softly, in that sweet voice of hers, “I think I might be in love with you.”   
“Crikey,” Jamie widens her eyes, but a smile follows, “I’d say it was pretty good then, if I got ya fallin’ in love with me.”   
“Don’t brag about it,” Dani rolls her eyes but her smile is just as big as Jamie’s.   
“If it means anything to ya Poppins, I knew I’d fall in love with ya the first time you walked in that door,” Jamie lets out a breath, “I’m just glad that it’s mutual because I wouldn’t’ want-“  
Her words are cut off by Dani’s lips on hers, pushing her back onto the bed. Jamie’s eyes widen in surprise by this and tries to tell Dani that she doesn’t want to, or isn’t ready yet that it’s okay. But Dani merely shakes her head and tells her she wants Jamie to feel as good as she does.   
Dani doesn’t have a clue as to what she’s doing but she knows that it’s all the same as her and she knows what to do there. But first, she wants to get to know Jamie’s body. To see and feel her completely. So, she shifts herself atop her so she’s in an upright position.   
Jamie is taken aback by all this, as Dani unbuttons her jeans and pulls them off, tossing them elsewhere. She shifts, so she’s next to Jamie again, her on her side and her lover splayed on her back. Dani lets her hand glide over Jamie’s stomach, feeling the goose fleshed skin under her fingers.   
“Are you cold?” Dani asks, concerned about this.   
“Not at all, my darling,” Jamie shakes her head.   
Her eyes never leaves Dani’s, as she focuses her attention to studying her lover’s body. Feeling the crevices of her neck and the swell of her breasts. She takes a nipple between her thumb and forefinger, rolling it between the two before letting her lips soothe the flesh. Her hands continue to travel downwards again, stopping right above where Jamie needs her most.   
Jamie doesn’t need verbalization to know Dani is unsure of what to do next, so she gently says, “Just do what you would do. It’s okay.”   
That’s all Dani needed to hear, as she let her fingers dip inside her lover. One at first, just to get used to the feeling and no. This is nothing like how it is with herself. It’s so much better. Jamie grasps the sheets, and buries her head into the pillow as Dani adds a second finger, picking up the speed when she does.   
She curls her fingers as she steadily pumps in and out, massaging her lovers walls. It all proves to be too much for Jamie to stay sane, as she loses herself in the moment. Dani can feel the spasm of her lover and revels in the sensation of it as she keeps her fingers there until she comes all the way back down.   
Jamie lets out a series of ragged breaths and wraps her arms around Dani, “Come here.”   
Their lips meet once more, their kiss deep and loving. Their tongues tangled up in each other, as they legs wrap around one another. Hands are everywhere again. They giggle and share sweet words of their affection. And in this moment, Dani thinks if anyone had told her this would happen when she came to Bly, she might’ve not believed them. So, she’s glad that this one time, the universe worked in her favor.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani finally comes face to face with Peter Quint and Rebecca Jessel, discovering why the children have been acting so odd all this time only to find herself in a battle for her life against them and something far more sinister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok well all the action goes down here in this chapter!! so by the next (and last) chapter, we'll just be wrapping everything up!! hope you guys enjoy and leave feedback if you do!! :)

The au pair slept so well that she was unsure if she’d ever slept at all. When she awoke the next morning, Jamie’s back was towards her. Still bare, of course but something caught her eye that she hadn’t noticed before. A well sized burn mark on her right shoulder blade. It was scarred over now, of course but Dani couldn’t help but wonder what caused something like that.   
She remembers what Jamie told her last night, about going throughout foster care because there’d been an accident, getting into trouble and spending a couple years behind bars. Dani assumes that it happened sometime during those days before they’d met. Maybe someday she’d hear the story but for now, she would let Jamie sleep. It was almost time for the children to be up and she could smell bacon frying in the kitchen.   
Dani rises from the bed, nude, searching for her scattered clothing. Her pants were all the way across the room, her sweater managed to hide under the bed, she still couldn’t find her bra, so she just pulled a fresh one from the drawer. As she slipped her sweater over her head, she took a look at herself in the mirror. The first time in a long time she could fully look at herself and not see him.   
It was a good feeling and she couldn’t help but smile. She hoped that she would never have to be afraid of looking at herself in the mirror again. Yet, a different kind of fear instilled her body when she walked across the room to find Flora wandering the grounds again. She ran out of her room and down the stairs as quickly as she could.  
The little girl stopped right at the entrance of the forest, staring into space.   
“Flora,” Dani shouts for her, “Flora!”   
This gets the little girl’s attention enough to turn and look at Dani. “Mrs. Clayton, what are you doing out here?”   
“Have you been sleep-walking again?”   
“I’m not sure,” Flora shakes her head, “It’s like these memories keep replaying in my head when I’m asleep but when I wake up, I’m no longer in my bed.”   
“Memories of what?” Dani cocks her head.   
“Oh look,” Flora smiles, “There’s Miles.”   
“Flora, look at me,” Dani tries to grab the girl’s attention back to her, “What memories?”   
“One’s of mum and dad, of course,” Flora is surprisingly cheerful, “I miss them quite a lot.”   
“Flora, what are you doing out here?” Miles asks as he finally approaches. “Hannah has been looking all over for you. Breakfast is almost ready.”   
“We better get inside Mrs. Clayton. You don’t want to miss breakfast.” 

Just like that, the little girl was back to normal. She even spent the whole day outside with her and Jamie doing some gardening in the greenhouse. Miles helped too of course, but he retired early to help Hannah and Owen with dinner.   
“What is this one called Jamie?” Flora asks as she picks up a bright pink flower in her well oversized gloves she’d borrowed from the gardener, “It’s very beautiful.”   
“That’s a hyacinth,” Jamie explains, “They’re very hard to grow here because they like warmer weather. So, they require some extra love and care so they can grow. And this one right here, is very rare because they normally don’t come in this pink color. You have to breed them.”   
“You can breed flowers?” Flora looks at Dani, who in turn looks at Jamie. “I thought breeding was just for animals.”   
Jamie tries to hide her laugh, but has no luck, “Everything can breed. Even flowers.”   
“That’s amazing, isn’t it Mrs. Clayton?” Flora looks up at the au pair with amazement in her eyes.   
“It really is.”   
“Come,” Jamie waves a hand for the two to follow her further down the line, “Let me show you my stash of tiger lilies.” 

Inside, Hannah and Owen watched over Miles as he stirred the beef stew. Owen had already measured out the exact amount of spices needed for it and let the young boy add them in one by one. Hannah thought it more than sweet seeing the two of them together. Miles had always taken to cooking, and who better to learn from than Owen.   
“So, what does the garlic do?” Miles asks Owen as he adds the last pinch into the pot.   
“That gives the stew most of it’s flavor,” Owen explains, “You see, you always want to have a wide variety of flavors so you’re not just tasting one thing the entire time you’re eating it.”   
“That makes sense,” Miles nods, turning to Hannah, “What’s your favorite food Mrs. Grose?”   
Hannah smiles, running a hand across the back of her head, “Hm, I don’t know. I do love a good steak with Owen’s special red wine sauce.”   
“You’re batty for that sauce,” Owen remarks on. He tells Miles, “Whenever I make steak, I always have to make an extra batch because she loves it so much.”   
“Do you like everything that Owen makes?” Miles asks Hannah.   
“Mostly everything,” Hannah purses her lips, “Except for that dreadful brussel sprout soup. Not even a dog would eat it.”   
“You promised not to bring that up again,” Owen points at her with a stern look. “It was only one time.”   
“One time, too much!”   
“I like your spaghetti Owen,” Miles compliments him on this to make him feel better. “It tastes better than any other spaghetti I’ve ever had.”   
“Thank you, Miles. That is quite a compliment coming from you.”   
The two pass along easy conversation as they continue on dinner until it’s time for the three girls to join them at the table. Once everyone is seated with their hands washed, they dig in. Jamie is sat next to Dani, and keeps a gentle hand on her knee throughout the meal.   
Hannah notices this and lets Owen in on it, but neither of them say anything to the pair. Hannah knows how long Jamie has struggled to find love that was worth the effort for her. She’d shared stories with the older woman some nights out in the chapel about her days in jail. Even said she had a pretty serious girlfriend who’d gotten out a few months before her saying she’d wait for her. Jamie went to find her after she got out, only to discover she’d had a husband and child waiting for her back home.   
It broke Hannah’s heart to see Jamie struggle so much with it, but she was happy for her now, knowing that Dani had come along. The two were the perfect fit for each other. Despite Jamie being rough around the edges at first. Her heart of gold was just too big to resist the brave and trying nature of Dani Clayton. 

Night comes along before anyone knows it, so Dani quickly puts the kids to bed and joins Jamie out in the hallway.   
“I’ve been calling Henry every night, trying to get him to talk to me about Flora,” Dani sighs, the weight of Flora’s night walking clearly taking a toll on her. She didn’t want the little girl to get hurt or worse. “He refuses to call me back, so I think I’m going to take her to a doctor in the morning. Figure out why she’s been sleepwalking.”   
“I can give ya a lift in the morning,” Jamie offers, “I know a good doctor right outside Bly that can fix her right up. He’s helped me more times than not.”   
“That would be very appreciated,” Dani smiles, “Will you stay tonight?”   
“I think I should get back, take a shower at the least,” Jamie doesn’t like to admit this, but she can tell that she’s starting to smell and she hates that feeling.   
“Y-You could come back,” Dani asks, softly, hopeful. “I’ll be up half the night checking in on her anyways.”  
“I don’t know, Poppins,” Jamie gives the au pair a big cheesy smile, “There will be other nights, and more nights after that.”   
“You promise?”   
“Promise,” Jamie says, bringing in Dani for a quick, deep kiss.   
Their tongues twist together and they wrap their arms around one another. Holding each other so tightly that neither of them want to let go. They do however, because Jamie is afraid that if she doesn’t stop now, she’ll end up staying another night and she really wants to take a shower.   
“I’ll see you in the mornin’,” Jamie lets go of Dani’s hand and watches as the other woman defends the staircase till she’s out the door.   
She misses Jamie already. Looking towards the day where they no longer have to say goodbye to each other at the end of the night and they can just go to sleep together. But she will let Jamie decide when that time comes. Dani sighs again, and opens the door to check in on Flora one last time before she takes a shower herself.   
When she opens a door, she sees something that you’d only see in nightmares. Rebecca Jessel, sitting on the side of Flora’s bed. Dani clearly has interrupted their conversation but she doesn’t care, “You get away from her, right now!”   
“Mrs. Clayton,” Flora sits up in bed.   
“Please, I’m not going to hurt her-  
Everything goes black. 

When Dani awakens, her head is blistering with pain and she notices very quickly that she has been hog tied in the attic. There’s older doll houses, and knick-knacks that have been stored up here for goodness knows how long. Miles and Flora stand in front of her with sad looks on their faces.   
“Mrs. Clayton,” Flora says to her, “Please don’t be frightened. They don’t like it when you’re scared.”   
This only terrifies her more, if anything. Dani tries to scream but the cloth that’s in her mouth keeps her from doing that. So, she resorts to stomping on the floor with her feet and hands, to make some kind of noise. She hopes it grabs Hannah’s attention, please let it.   
“You couldn’t get her to shut her hole for a minute, could you?” A man’s voice comes from elsewhere in the attic. One belonging to, Peter Quint.   
“Please, Peter, the poor woman is scared out of her wits,” Rebecca Jessel says to him now. “Let’s just let her go and we can pretend that none of this happened.”   
“No!” he shouts, earning frightened looks from the children. He notices this and lowers his voice slightly, “No. No we can’t. She already knows to much.”   
“She doesn’t know anything,” Miles comes to Dani’s defense. “Right Mrs. Clayton?”   
Dani could tell it was a last ditch effort to protect her and hoping they would let her go. She nods. However, Peter Quint wasn’t buying it.   
“She’s lying,” he says through gritted teeth, “All women ever do is lie.”   
He paces the attic back and forth a few times, “It’s time for our plan to finally come together. We can’t waste anymore time waiting.”   
“They’re not ready yet,” Rebecca says, grabbing his arm gently. “We agreed not yet.”   
“I don’t know about you Bec,” Peter is angry, “But I don’t want to end up looking like this.”   
From behind him, he grabs a woman in a pink dress with no face, pulling her out of the shadows. It’s the same woman from Flora’s dollhouse.  
“Everyone who dies here in Bly just fades away,” Peter explains, “They become nothing. Remember nothing. They’re just stuck here because this place is a living hell!”   
So, Peter has been haunting this place the entire time. Dani truly did see him wandering around the grounds. Except he’s been a ghost. That’s why nobody could find him when they searched for him all night a few weeks ago.   
Rebecca gets on her knees in front of the children, “Remember what we’ve been practicing? Except this time it’s going to become forever. We’ll be with you always.”   
“So, we’re going to get tucked away forever?” Flora asks, a stray tear going down her face.  
“We’ll be with mommy and daddy again?” Miles asks.   
“Yes,” Peter jumps in, “You’ll be tucked away with your mommy and daddy forever so you’ll never be sad again.”   
The children nod, understanding that this has become their duty. Dani screams in the background, trying to get them to stop. But it does no good.   
“Remember the words?” Peter asks, “It’s you. It’s me. It’s us.”   
Together the children, Peter, and Rebecca say those six words. Peter and Rebecca’s spirits disappear, leaving only Flora and Miles behind. Except, it’s not really them anymore.   
“God, will somebody please shut her up,” Miles groans, clearly possessed by Peter. A knock comes from the attic door and Dani can hear Hannah’s voice asking if everything is alright up there. She tries to shout but nothing comes out. “Take care of her, I’m going to deal with Hannah Grose once and for all.”   
Miles disappears back downstairs, leaving only Flora, who is actually Rebecca. The little girl kneels down next to Dani and within the time it takes to blink, Rebecca’s spirit is next to them again.   
“How did I do?” Flora asks Rebecca.   
“You did great, just like we’d practiced,” Rebecca says to Flora. “Now you untie Mrs. Clayton while I go take care of Peter.”   
Flora does just as she’s ordered, untying the woman who grabs the little girl up like a baby, “We’re getting you out of here right now.”   
“What about Miles?” Flora asks, concerned for her older brother, “We can’t leave him behind.”   
“Miles is too far gone now,” Dani explains, setting her down for a moment once they’ve gotten outside, “We have to get out of here.”   
Nothing. Absolutely nothing could’ve prepared Dani Clayton for what happened next. The lady of the lake, who’d Flora had always warned her against, had her within her grip. She was relentless and unforgiving. Holding her neck tight as a noose around her neck.   
Dani felt the air in her lungs depleting quickly. She gasped and it was enough to keep her at bay but she knew unless she could somehow get out of the ghost’s hands, that she would be the next victim of Bly. Pain shot through her body as the ghostly woman carried her up the stairs, kicking and trying to scream. Her legs hitting with less force than the last as she lost feeling.   
She doesn’t know where she’s going until she is in the old wing of the house. Not recognizing it until later. Later, after Flora intercepts the lady of the lake, telling her to take her instead. This is enough for the woman to let go of Dani. She shifts and picks up Flora like a baby and starts to walk. Walking back to the lake, where she will keep Flora forever. Dani cannot stop this, as the strain was too much, darkness clouds her mind as she struggles to catch her breath. 

Jamie and Owen have returned to Bly by then, claiming they had terrible nightmares and couldn’t sleep. Hannah shouts from by the well so Owen runs to find her, leaving Jamie in the drive. She sees her. The lady of the lake holding Flora but something holds her back from trying to save her. What that is, she still doesn’t know to this day. But if it hadn’t she surely would’ve been claimed by the manor.   
Henry Wingrave arrives merely moments later just as Dani bursts through the front door of the house. Jamie runs to her, knowing she has been hurt. She can see the marks around her neck from the ghostly woman’s hands. But she doesn’t have time to talk, she needs to save Flora.   
Yet, she arrives to the lake, too late. Henry, already muttering the words, “It’s you. It’s me. It’s us.”   
The lady of the lake disappears and Flora is left dangling in the water, whilst Jamie goes to pull her out, leaving her soaked. Dani stays to check on Henry, who has changed somehow. She feels it on him when she touches his skin. It’s hot, burning anger.   
Owen and Hannah, whose carrying Miles arrive then. Hannah has a gash across her forehead and Owen wide eyed like he’d seen a ghost as well. Everything was eerily calm. The kids were safe, they were all safe, the lady of the lake couldn’t hurt them anymore.   
They all rounded together in a hug, the children holding on to each other so tight. Dani and Jamie crushed by Owen’s tight squeeze, while Hannah whimpered lightly under the night sky. Everything was okay. Everyone was okay.   
Except Henry. He had invited the lady of the lake into him to save Flora. And she accepted. He used the words he and Charlotte used to say to each other during their blissful nights of romance. Revealing later to the adults that Flora was his child and not his brothers. Those words are what bounded the spirits to Bly and then to people.   
Dani had to admit to herself, it was very brave what Henry did for Flora. His love for his own child so deep that he took on an inevitable time bomb to save her. A love so deep that he went away, so he couldn’t hurt her as he already felt the rage and pain inside him from the lady of the lake. He knew that someday she would come to surface and he would perish.   
He did not want Flora to be around when that time came. So, that night, the most dreadful night in Dani’s time at Bly Manor, he left. He left nothing but a note explaining this and went elsewhere in the world to be alone. To wait and wait and wait.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry finally calls after two years as Dani, Jamie, Hannah, and Owen break it to the kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no spoilers!! check around after for end notes!! enjoy!!! :)

Two years passed with no word from Henry Wingrave. His whereabouts unknown. He promised in his letter that he would ring when it was time. In that time, Dani and Jamie moved to Vermont, taking Flora along with them. Dani had wanted to return to the states, despite her love for London, even Jamie agreed it held too much weight.   
Owen and Hannah moved to Paris, with Miles. He wanted to go with them so he could learn to cook just like Owen. They loved it there and soon, the children would have no memory of that night, or what happened at Bly at all. It would fade away slowly but surely with time.   
Now, in Vermont, Dani and Jamie were preparing for their third Christmas together. It was late November, and snow already packed the ground. Flora, now ten, went out earlier and made a pair of matching snowmen. One was her and one was Miles. She missed him terribly, enough so that the two women would let her call and talk to him every Friday night after dinner for as long as she wanted. Despite it running up the phone bill an extra few dollars. They both loved Flora like their own, Miles too, but the children made the decision to live apart for now.   
The au pair and gardener even started their own flower shop, called The Leafling. Business was an instant success for them that they had no troubles at all settling down. Flora helped a lot as well, when she wasn’t in school that is. They were nervous that after being so sheltered, Flora would have difficulty making friends but it was actually the opposite. There’d be nights where the two women’s apartment would be filled with a least a dozen children all over to play with Flora.   
Jamie hated it, if she was really being honest with herself. She was never fond of children with Flora and Miles really being the only exception. But she got used to it and the amount of kids who came over to the house dwindled down to only two or three at most. Dani wanted to start teaching again, however, her and Jamie agreed to give it a few more years. It was still to early and Jamie was afraid if she jumped into it now, she would get turned off by it and lose her heart for it completely.   
The phone rings from across the hall now, in their apartment. It’s late in the evening but it’s a weekend, so they’re all cuddled up on the couch watching Flora’s favorite Christmas movie. Jamie pulls herself away to answer the phone.   
“Dani,” Jamie’s whispering voice pulls her focus away from the movie. She turns and sees her lover nibbling on one of her nails as the receiver is tucked between her ear and shoulder.   
Dani removes herself from the couch softly so as not to disturb Flora. “What is it?”   
“It’s Owen,” Jamie says softly. “It’s Henry. He’s called.”   
This is the moment they’d all been preparing for. The moment that haunted them at night, the thought that was always on their mind that never needed to be said.   
“It’s time?” she asks in a question.  
Jamie nods and tells Owen to call in the morning if he doesn’t hear anything else. Dani can hear his voice from the phone as they hang up.   
“Was that Miles?” Flora asks brightly as she props her self up on the couch.   
“No, honey, it was just a friend of ours,” Dani says to Flora. She hates lying to her, but they can’t tell her. Not yet.   
“Why are your friends calling so late then, tell them it’s time for bed,” Flora giggles and goes back to watching her movie.   
“How are we gonna break it to her, Poppins?” Jamie asks, wrapping an arm around her lover. “It’s going to break her heart.”   
“I don’t know, Jamie. All we can do is tell her the truth,” Dani says. “We’ll wait it out a bit until we know and then we’ll tell her.”   
“I think I should go back.”   
“Go back?” Dani raises an eyebrow, “Go back to Bly?”   
“Just to see for myself. To give everyone closure.”   
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”   
Jamie shakes her head, “Neither do I, but it’s what these kids deserve. After all they’ve been through. Why tell them he’s dead if we don’t know for sure.”   
Dani contemplates this for a minute, “Okay. But just know I don’t like the idea of this.”   
It was an idea neither of them liked but it was what everybody needed. Closure. Finality. The peace they need to finally continue on with their lives. Closing a chapter so another one can begin. 

Jamie leaves on a plane the next morning before Flora wakes up. She assures Dani that she’ll be back within a day. A promise she intends on keeping. But that’s still not enough to keep Dani from worrying.   
She’s back in Bly within nine hours. The house has become overgrown with ivy, the plants she once tended to now long dead. It broke her heart slightly and part of her wants to go into the greenhouse to start fixing them up again but she resists it. She came here for one reason and one reason only.  
Slowly, she makes her way into the water, which was absolutely freezing. She swims out about halfway and dives down. There, she sees Henry. His body lifeless, not yet faceless as he just lies there. She’s seen enough to know he’s gone.  
Once back on shore, she quickly makes herself back to her rental, where she changes out of her wet clothes into dry ones before revving the engine up to go. Before she leaves, however, one memory haunts her. The memory of all of them together in the drive as they said goodbye to each other. It wasn’t the last time of course, but they haven’t seen each other since. Maybe it was time for a get together.   
Jamie shakes her head and gets out of Bly as quick as she can, already feeling the pull of the place putting it’s hold back onto her. Once back in London, she stops at the payphone and gives Dani a call. One ring, two ring, “Hello?”   
“Darling,” Jamie says, elated to hear her lover’s voice, “It’s me.”   
“Jamie, oh goodness I’m so glad to hear your voice. Did you?”   
“Yes. He’s gone, Dani. He’s at the bottom of the lake,” Jamie says solemnly.   
The phone goes blank for a moment and Jamie almost thinks Dani’s hung up till she hears her voice, “I’ll call Owen and let him know. I’ll wait to tell Flora till you get back.”   
With that, they said their goodbyes. That night Jamie was on a plane back home to Vermont, and when she landed, nearly three in the morning, her two girls were already there waiting. Well, Dani, as Flora had fallen asleep in her lap.   
“She’s a precious thing you know,” Jamie sits down on the bench where Dani is, “Are you keeping her out of school tomorrow?”   
“I’ve already called and let them know,” Dani whispers. “I haven’t heard back from Owen yet, he said he’d call soon.”   
Jamie nods, “Well, I suppose we should get back home. Let her sleep in and enjoy it.” 

Once they were back to the apartment, Jamie carried Flora back to her bed. She then met Dani on the couch with a glass of wine.   
“I know you’re tired,” Dani says, “But I need to ask, what did it feel like, going back there?”   
“Same old, Bly,” Jamie chuckles, taking a sip from her glass, “It was odd. Seeing it overrun with so much weeds and lifelessness. Is it crazy to say that I almost went to the greenhouse to start reviving all those plants?”   
Dani smiles softly, “No. It’s not.”   
“It’s like even now, it still has that pull on you. That even once you leave, you’ll always carry it with you.”   
“I’m just happy you made it back in one piece. I was so worried, Jamie. I love you and I don’t know what I would’ve done if you didn’t come back.”   
“Hey,” Jamie takes Dani’s face between her hands, “None of that talk. I would’ve made it back to you.”   
Dani nods and let’s Jamie take her into her arms, “You know, now this might sound crazy to say but I’m really happy that Bly happened.”   
“Oh yeah, why’s that?”   
“Because it brought me to you,” Dani looks up at her with a teary look in her eye.   
“Poppins,” Jamie brushes away a tear, “I think I would’ve made my way to you, regardless. Bly or no Bly.”   
“Do you really believe that?”   
“I do, but since Bly did happen, I am grateful I have you and Flora out of it. Miles too, that little shit.”   
Dani lets out a big laugh, “I love you, Jamie.”   
“I love you, moonflower.”   
They fall asleep on the couch together, sleeping until it’s early afternoon. Flora has already risen, but she’s only been up a few minutes watching cartoons on the TV. Dani goes to turn them off, till she remembers she kept her out of school today.   
“Good morning Flora,” Dani says, rubbing her eyes.   
“How come there’s no school today?” Flora asks, with those bright big eyes.   
Jamie sits up next to her, groaning and stretching out her back, “We thought it would be cool if we had a girl’s day.”   
“A girls day?” Flora cocks her head, “What’s that?”   
“A day where we go around shopping and we can even get ice cream,” Dani adds on.   
“Ice cream!” 

Dani and Jamie keep their word to Flora. They take her shopping and let her pick out a new dollhouse and even a few new outfits for school. They get ice cream afterwards, because of course, ice cream. It puts a nice dent into their wallet, even after they order pizza for dinner. But with what comes after, they want to make sure Flora remembered what a good day she had.   
“Flora,” Dani starts, “Jamie and I have something to tell you.”   
“Okay,” Flora says, listening intently as she always does.   
“Do you remember Uncle Henry?” Jamie asks, treading slowly.   
“Of course, I miss him a lot you know, I know why he doesn’t call but I wish I could see him sometimes,” Flora says.  
Dani and Jamie look at each other and their heart breaks at the same time. “That’s the thing Flora,” Dani takes over, tears streaming down both their faces, “Uncle Henry isn’t here with us anymore.”   
“Did he come to visit and I missed it?”   
“No, honey,” Jamie takes her hand, “Uncle Henry passed away. He’s dead.”   
Jamie hated to put it bluntly, but it was better to just rip the bandaid off. Flora looks confused at first, but she begins to understand, “So he’s with mum and dad now?”   
Dani nods, “Yes, he’s with them up in the sky.”   
“Oh,” the little girl sighs. One stray tear trickles down her face, “Dead doesn’t mean gone, though. He’s still with us. I can feel him, in here,” she points to her heart.   
At that moment, the two women break down into tears themselves. More than Flora, but she eventually starts crying too. Jamie pulls the little girl into her lap and the two women hug her so tightly, that she feels all their love. Even Hannah and Owen’s from across the sea, who’s probably doing the same with Miles.   
Hannah rings a few hours later and Dani is the one to take the call as Jamie and Flora are playing a round of cards in the living room.   
“Hello?”   
“Dani, darling,” Hannah’s voice coos through the receiver, “How are you holding up?”   
“I’m alright. I think Flora is too. She’s taking this surprisingly well, how’s Miles?”   
“He’s a wreck, honestly. We told him last night and he’s refused to come out of his room. He wants to see Flora.”   
“I think that would be a great idea. I’ll talk to Jamie about it and see if we can set something up.”   
“Just let us know, we can fly out to you. I’ve always wanted to see America, despite you know, the obvious reason not to.”   
This earns a genuine laugh from Dani. She’s missed them. She’s missed when they were all together as a family, laughing and eating around the table together. It would be nice to see everyone again. Because despite the tragedies of what’s happened, something more beautiful has been borne from it.  
She’s reminded of Jamie’s speech, the night she showed her the moonflowers. How she talked about with every death, more life is left behind to take its place. This little family that they’ve created is just that. Even if sometimes they’re in different places, in their hearts, they’re always together. They’re never apart for long and when they’re together, well, that’s just the beauty of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright. so if you're reading this, it must mean you stuck around and read the entire fic. to which i am extremely grateful for. i'm still working on my fic writing though i am getting better everyday. these two were just impossible to resist writing for. thank you for all the support and i hope you have enjoyed. be sure to leave feedback if you did enjoy this fic and happy reading :)
> 
> find me over on tumblr @ kissvillanelle

**Author's Note:**

> find me over on tumblr @ kissvillanelle :)


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